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f UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.! 



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AN ESSAY 

RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL 

ON 

ECCLESIASTICAL FINANCE, 

AS REGARDS THE 

Uoman ©atfjoUt ^^uvt'^ 

IN IRELAND; 

INTERSPERSED WITH OTHER MATTER NOT IRRELEVANT TO 
THE SUBJECT. 



BY THE REV. DAVID O. CROLY, 

Parish Priest of Ovens and Aglis, 



You see, good folk, what 'tis I lack 
*Tis only some convenient " tack i^^ 
Some pars'nage house with garden sweet, 
To be my late my last retreat. 
A decent Church close by its side, 
There, preaching, praying, to reside ; 
And, as my time securely rolls, 
To save my own and other souls. Swift. 



THIRD EDITION. 

CORK : 
JOHN BOLSTER, PATRICK-STREET; 

SOLD BY WILLIAM CURRY, JUN. AND CO- ; R. M. TIMS ; 

AND R. MILLIKEN AND SON, DUBLIN ; 

LONGMAN AND CO., AND R. GROOMBRIDGE, LONDON ; 

AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. 




MDCCCXXXIV. 

lEntcred at Siadoncn* Hull.] 






«■ 



Omnino qui reipublicae prsfuturi sunt duo Platonis praecepta 
teneant ; unum, ut utilitatem cmum sic tueantur ut, qsecunque 
agunt ad earn referant, obliti commodorum suorum : alterum, ut 
totum corpus reipublicae curent ; ne dum partem aliquam tuen- 
tur, reliquas deserant. Ut enim tutela, sic procuratio reipubli- 
cae ad utilitatem eorum qui commissi sunt non ad eorum quibus 
commissa, gerenda est. Qui aiitem parti civium consulunt 
partem negligunt, rem perniciosissimam in civitatem inducunt, 
seditionem atque discordiam, ex quo evenit, ut alii populares, 
alii, studiosi optimi cujusque videantui', pauci universorum. 

Cic de officiis Cap. 25. 



It is the indispensable duty of legislators or of all such as 
have the management of public affairs ever to bear in mind two 
precepts laid down by Plato — namely — that all their acts should 
have for object the public good without any reference to their 
own private interests; and that their care or their attention 
should be directed to the wJwIe body of the community; that is, 
that favor should not be shown to one portion to the prejudice 
of the rest. For as the duty of defending the State, so its admi- 
nistration ought to be discharged not for the advantage of the 
few who exercise command, but for the benefit of the many over 
whom command is exercised. Further, if partial interests be 
attended to, if some be favoured to the neglect or prejudice of 
the rest, the most pernicious consequences may result to the 
commonwealth, the evils of discord and sedition ; in which 
case some will side with the multitude, some with the aristo- 
cracy, while few or none will look to the general interest. 



EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
Ad plehem. 



Fkllow Countrymen, 

I BEG leave to usher the following Essay into the 
world under your auspices. I have been prompted to 
do so from the consideration that it contains not a little 
that regards your interest and welfare. But I should 
first of all ask pardon for taking this liberty, because I 
fear you may take offence at some of my expressions and 
observations. Do not however, suppose that, though I 
occasionally use words harsh and grating, I am not still 
your faithful servant. The best friend is he who speaks 
the truth and flatters not. I am not one of those who 
say every thing which they imagine will please and de- 
light you and recommend themselves to your favour — 
not considering what is demanded by truth, by justice, 
or by your real interests. Such indeed is the perversity 
of human nature, that it is difficult to find men of inte- 
grity and virtue — good counsellors in whom confidence 
may safely be reposed. And what is the result ? That 
bad advice is often given and followed on public as w^ell 
as private affairs, to your great loss and inconvenience. 
You may also fall a sacrifice to well-meaning but mista- 
ken honesty — to persons '' w^hose zeal is not according 
to knowledge;" who, overrating their abilities, may 
thrust themselves forward as your advisers, and unwit- 
tingly propose the most pernicious measures for your 
adoption : so that between the active perversity of one 
and the officious ignorance of the other, you run risks 
of a very dangerous description. It is incumbent on 
you therefore, to listen alwavs with great caution ; and 

^2 



to observe well each and every actor on the public scene. 
These men pretend to be your humble servants, and to 
act in all things according to your directions ; while the 
fact is that they labour incessantly to take you individu- 
ally and collectively, into their own holy keeping ; to 
make you embrace their peculiar opinions — be, in short, 
the puppets of their will and the echo, of their senti- 
ments. Indeed, under the disguise of servants, they are 
your masters and dictators — stamping their own doc- 
trines and schemes with your effigy, in order to give 
them currency. This is to take great liberties. They 
assume, in some sort, the form of an administration for 
conducting your state affairs. They are or they pretend 
to be your ministers. The office therefore which they 
have assumed, or to which you have appointed them, is 
one of great importance — a circumstance that renders 
it imperative on you to watch them very closely. If 
they pretend a zeal for religion, you should see if their 
lives be of a correspondent description, if they be reaUy 
and truly religious men. For if the case be otherwise, 
you have reason to suspect the sincerity of their profes- 
sions J and that religion is employed as a political expe- 
dient for the accomplishment of some concealed purpose. 
Political expediency indeed is quite the fashion of the 
day ; and the mass of the people are treated as children. 
You should also mark the political career of these wise 
personages. If you find that they have fallen into con- 
tradictions ; that having first condemned, they after- 
wards applauded ; or having first applauded, they after- 
wards condemed the same identical measures ; yet ever 
insisting most vehemently, as the case may be, upon 
the adoption of whatever they recommend, and denoun- 
cing in unmeasured terms, all such as do not coincide 
with them, what conclusion should you draw ? Should 
you not be slow to rally round the standard of such per- 
sons ; or to be roused into action by their counsel or ex- 
hortation ? You ought indeed, under such circum- 
stances, to consider them as unsafe guides, and by no 
means to regard them as oracles. 

You would do well not to suffer yourselves to be sway- 
ed by the advice of the youthful and the giddy ; who are 
ever i^ady to obtmde themselves upon you and to sti- 



mulate you to the most dangerous and hazardous enter- 
prises. Rehoboam — the son of Solomon — was ruined 
by following the counsel of such persons. 

^Yhen looking to your own welfare you should be 
sure to take into consideration two things ; and to give 
due weight to one as Yrell as to the other. You should 
look to the increase of income as well as to the diminu- 
tion of expenditure. The latter is what is principally 
insisted on by your advisers ; and what if it happen, 
that the very measures they recommend to effect this 
object should have a direct tendency to counteract the 
foraier ? This is a point worthy your attention. No- 
thing could tend more to enlarge your income than to 
have agriculture and trade in a flourishing condition. 
But can this be the case so long as the country is kept 
in a state of disturbance and alarm ; so long as public 
confidence is a mere nullity ? National wealth can only 
be produced in the bosom of National tranquilHty ; nor 
will any man lay out capital and exert his industry where 
he considers life and property insecure.^ Ireland is 
unhappily kept more or less in a state of this descrip- 
tion — to your great detriment and loss. Now it is for 
you to consider if this evil has not been occasioned by 
the pernicious counsel of those, who, if they had your 
real interests at heart and took a proper viev\- of things, 
would hold very different language to you. You should 
reject every advice that would mar your capabilities for 
production, and consequently diminish your income. 
Take care therefore, that in struggling to save a penny 
you do not lose a gi-oat ; or, to use an old saying — that 
''you lose not a sheep for a ha'porth of tar;'' besides 
that it may even turn out that the saving you propose to 
effect, to the great prejudice of your other interests, is 
merely fanciful and imaginary, as is opined by men of 
great wisdom an^l discernment. 

I cannot but here remark how endeavours are made 
to persuade you that you are all-powerful ; that to effect 
any specific object you have nothing to do but to com- 
bine together for the purpose; before which mighty 
combination all opposition must vanish. This idea is 

* See Ai^pcndix, 1. 
A 3 



very flattering to your self-love ; and upon that account 
the more dangerous to be entertained. But you should 
leara from experience not to be entrapped by any such 
deceitful allm'ement, and to be perfectly satisfied that 
you can effect nothiag in opposition to the other orders 
of the State ; except indeed that you may succeed for a 
season in deranging the affairs of the conmaunity ; of 
which unhappy state of things you yourselves must fii'st 
and last be the principal victims. The experiment has- 
too often been tried ; and such invariably has been the 
mischievous result. Lend no ear to such advisers — ad- 
visers whjse eveiy syllable is fraught with evil to the 
common- weal. 

I must remind you of a circumstance which should 
strike you very forcibly ; namely, that many persons of 
great weight and intelligence think A'ery differently from 
those who usui*p the place of your confidential advisers. 
This should fui'nish you with some grounds for thinking 
that perhaps your confidence is misplaced : and you 
should be the more suspicious when you find the most 
unremitting endeavours, on the part of these same ad- 
visers, to make this respectable body odious in yom' 
eyes, to make you consider them, indeed, as your mor- 
tal enemies. The drift of this is no mystery ; it is plain 
enough. They wish to keep you in their own hands ; 
thev ^vish to pei*petuate their influence and dominion 
over you. 

Again : is it possible that these persons are looking 
to self in all their extraordinaiy labours ? Is their con- 
sequence increa&ed ? Is their ambition gratified ? Is 
money brought into their coffers .-^ If the system they 
pm'sue be of mighty benefit to themselves, it is no v^on- 
der they should adopt it and persevere in it. Recollect 
the old moral in the Spelling Book : 

Each man will be true to his own private ends, 
Though false to his country, religion, and friends. 

It mav be nothing but a mere trade with these gentle- 
men ; earned on however at your expense. 

Can they not juggle and with sleight 
Conveyance play with wrong and right. 
And sell their blasts of wind as dear 
As Lapland witches bottled air ? 



See then the disadvantageous position you occupy, 
and that too in connexion with matters of great moment. 
What can be worse than to pay evil counsellors for giv- 
ing you evil advice ? They have all the gain and you 
sustain all the loss ; to say nothing of the provoking 
circumstance of being bamboozled out of your money 
by the systematic trickery of political charlatans. 

What would render this evil still more serious is, if 
it should acquire permanency — the unhappy and almost 
necessary consequence of dexterous artifice on the one 
side, and confiding simplicity on the other. This is a 
point that challenges your serious attention . You shoul d 
not be too credulous, but learn to be distrustful of pub- 
lic men and to judge for yourselves. It may not be 
amiss to mention that these knowing gentlemen make 
it sometimes a matter of boast that they have obtained 
a complete ascendancy over you ; they can do w^hat they 
please with you ; and compel even your Priests, wiiom 
you were wont to regard with so much deference, to 
act in conformity vrith their good will and pleasure. 
There is no doubt that they have succeeded so far as 
to press a considerable number into their service — a 
circumstance,, indeed, well calculated to give stabilitv 
to the control they themselves exercise over you. 
You may be so far led astray by this imposing cir- 
cumstance as to imagine that their advice or their sys- 
tem is identified with religion ; and their recommenda- 
tions so many sacred duties, which it becomes impera- 
tive on you to discharge. You should well weigh this 
matter ; and consider that when a Priest becomes a po- 
litician or a political partiza.n, he steps out of the line 
of his duty for so much ; and that all his acts and 
deeds of political partizanship or subserviency, have 
no reference to him as a religious character, or to the 
ecclesiastical body or hierarchy of vrhich he is a mem- 
ber, but are to be placed to the account of himself as a 
common individual, and of those under whose banners 
he has enlisted. In this outi^e character you should no 
longer consider him the oracle of divine truth ; or a 
Minister of the Gospel; but as one who may lead you 
astray, and on whom you should sit in judgment. Surely 
it is clear that the Gospel only should be announced 



8 

from tlie Altar ; that a Priest under all circumstances, 
should preach peace and good- will, and that the house 
of God should ever be used as a house of prayer. It 
would be no wonder if a Priest assuming the character 
of a political partizan, should lose in your eyes all reve- 
rence and authority ; not only as a politician, but as a 
Minister of the Gospel. 

You should consider also in judging of this matter, 
that all the Priests are not of this description ; that a 
division exists among them on the subject — which shews 
that '' something is rotten in Denmark" — also that the 
most forward in this extraordinar}' business, have been 
the young and inexperienced; that it is altogether a 
novelty and directly opposed to the example of former 
times ; and finally, that the Bishops, after having for 
some reasons, which should be explained, kept in the 
back ground for too long a period, have at length at the 
eleventh hour, come forward and pronounced the sen- 
tence of condemnation upon this unhallowed intermix- 
ture, both in reference to the Priest and to the Temple. 
But I must conclude. I have spoken to you and con- 
cerning you with candour and above-board. In my Es- 
say I state the fact that from the position you occupy 
in society, you are unfitted for the business of legisla- 
tion ; and in this my address, I warn you against the 
dangerous artifices of designing persons. 

I remain, Fellow -Countrymen, 

Your Faithful Servant, 

THE AUTHOR. 



INTHODUCTORY DISCOURSK 



Ireland is an unhappy country. It has been always 
a prey to foreign invasions, or torn in pieces by internal 
dissensions. This was the case before its conquest by 
England under Henry the Second. It was frequently 
overran and ravaged by the Danes and wasted still more 
by the barbarous wars almost incessantly carried on 
between the chieftains or petty tyrants with whom it 
abounded. Some authors, who, indeed, appear to be 
over credulous, speak highly of its ancient sanctity and 
civilization: but however well founded their statements 
may be, it is certain that little traces remained of either, 
when England, at the instance of Dearmuid M'Mur- 
chard, one of its provincial Kings, undertook to subdue 
it. In civil affairs, all at that period was anarchy and 
confusion ; while the manners of the people — rude and 
barbarous — appear to have been but little effected by 
the maxims of the Gospel. Ireland so circumstanced, 
fell an easy prey to England. 

This conquest made little improvement in the state of 
the countiy : which continued still to be ravaged by the 
quarrels of petty tyrants, or by abortive efforts on their 
part to shake off' the new yoke imposed on them. Yet 
during all this period of outrage and barbarity, some 
form of Christianity was kept up ; besides that all the 
belligerents, whether natives or foreigners, worshipped 
at the same altar. This is a proof that identity or di- 
versity of religion has not all the weight that people 
imagine, in the scale of national happiness or miseiy. 
The complete subjugation of Ireland, which followed af- 
ter the Reformation, led to the extinction of one great 
evil that afflicted the country. It prostrated the petty 



10 

tyrants of tlie land and subverted their petty sovereign- 
ties. This would have been a great blow to barbarism 
and a great stride to civilization, but that the effect was 
neutralized by counteracting causes. If all parties hap- 
pened then to be of one religion, Ireland would per- 
haps have advanced rapidly in the career of improve- 
ment. But this was not the case ; and the spirit of 
religious persecution being unhappily the fashion of the 
times, furnished new grounds for rancorous divisions, 
produced new party animosities — the persecutors de- 
tested by the persecuted, which latter, if they had had 
the power, would no doubt have imitated the example 
of the former. This misfortune of Ireland was not ow- 
ing to the errors or injustice of one party, in contradis- 
tinction to the correct judgment and uprightness of the 
other : but to the blind infatuation and ignorance of 
both ; who, indeed, were all total strangers to the prin- 
ciples of civil and rehgious hberty. The Protestants, 
who imagined that Catholics were idolators, considered 
them on that account fit objects for persecution ; while 
the Catholics, on their part, were of opinion that Pro- 
testants deserved similar treatment as being rebels to 
Church authority. This state of opinion and of things 
existed too long. No doubt an improvement has taken 
place. The age of rehgious persecution appears to be 
drawing to a close ; yet still it struggles to prolong its 
existence. It is to be feared that even in the present day 
in this devoted country there are Protestants that would 
persecute Catholics and vice versa Cathohcs that would 
fain persecute Protestants ; that there are many persons 
of this description among all ranks and orders, but es- 
pecially among the lower classes; where, indeed, reh- 
gious prejudices and bigotry always take the firmest 
hold. This description of persons are opposed to every 
measure having a tendency to amalgamate into one bo- 
dy contending religionists, or to bring them into friend- 
ly contact. This portion of the communit}^ will not, in 
all likelihood, be pleased with the subject of the follow- 
ing tract ; nor with the propositions which it seeks to 
establish. But perhaps they will find it much easier to 
give vent to their anti- social displeasure, than to over- 
throw our reasoning on the subject. These people — 



11 

Catholics and Protestants — who, though upon opposite 
extremes, still, like Tory and Radical, come to the same 
conclusion, are mistaken both in principle and in fact. 
In spite of the march of human intellect and in opposi- 
tion to the Ibest interests of society, they adhere to the 
old system of religious intolerance — thus erring as to 
principle; and further they take a wrong view respec- 
tively, or they unwittingly draw a caricature of that re- 
ligion they would fain proscribe and persecute — and 
thus do they en* as to fact. 

The system of rehgious intolerance or persecution, 
which supposed what is proved to be false- — that diver- 
sity in religion is incompatible with public tranquillity ; 
and which has no other tendency but to make men 
martyrs or In^ocrites — martyrs of obstinate fools and 
hypocrites of knaves — is admitted by all enlightened 
persons to be utterly indefensible and is therefore aban- 
doned by the enlightened statesmen of the present day. 
Supposing then the Catholics to be idolators, are they to 
be persecuted; are they to be molested on that account? 
Reason with them, argue with them, remonstrate with 
them, convince them of their error; but do not scare them 
from their idolatry by the sword of the magistrate, pro- 
vided they are otherwise peaceable and well conducted. 
And, on the other hand, why should the war-whoop be 
sounded against Protestants, because they reject tenets 
which they consider false, and rites which they deem 
anti- christian ? No authority has command over truth 
or falsehood ; over right or wrong ; neither is the Gos- 
pel to be propagated or upheld by the severity or the 
terror of penal enactments. No matter what a man's 
religious creed may be, how long- soever or how short, 
nothing but his overt acts should fall under the cogni- 
zance of earthly tribunals ; nothing should be required of 
him by human authority, but to be a good subject or a 
good citizen. These are the principles which, hidden 
from the beginning of the world, have been brought to 
light in latter times ; and which, if well understood, 
and generally recognized, and duly acted on, would 
prove the true principles of political regeneration to un- 
happy Ireland. 

Further, these anti-social beings not content with 
clinging to the exploded system of religious persecution. 



12 

misrepresent also, or caricatui'e — unT\'ittiiigly no doubt, 
the religion to wliicli they are respectively opposed. 
They conjure up in their imagination, some frightful 
phantom to which they give existence, which, of course 
they hate, and which they fain would persecute. Mis- 
representations in religion have done incalculable mis- 
chief to mankind. Christianity which offered salvation 
to the world and preached good will to all, was misre- 
presented by paganism ; and therefore made the object, 
for several centuries after its commencement, of a series 
of bloody persecutions. Tacitus confounded the Chris- 
tians with the Jews ; whom, in confomiit}-, of course, 
with the prevailing opinions, he characterizes as the 
foes of the human race ; or as holding in detestation all 
other people of the earth. This charge was made against 
them because they refused to join in the religious or 
superstitious rites of other nations. No sect ever ap- 
peared since the foundation of the Church that was not 
made the subject of calumny and misrepresentation. 
The zeal of the combatants respectively can-ied them 
too far — they fastened upon unguarded or detached ex- 
pressions, listened to gi*oundless tales, took theii' stand 
upon solitary cases and made the multitude answerable 
for the sins and errors of individuals. Enmit}-, malice, 
party spirit (which seems congenial to mankind,) ea- 
o;ei*ness for triumph, will scarcely ever allow fair-deal- 
mg with an adversary. All this was fully exemplified 
in the long and rancorous disputes between Arianism 
and Orthodoxy. The great question was not to ascer- 
tain in what the respective doctrines differed — and the 
difference was small — but which party would gain the 
upper-hand — to the utter iiiin and extermination of the 
other. Arius, notwithstanding all the abuse that was 
heaped upon him, led a blameless life ; and some of the 
most learned men of his time and who did not fail un- 
der the brand of heterodoxy, maintained that his doc- 
trine misrht be explained in an orthodox sense. In the 
Council "of Florence, the Greeks and Latins, who had 
been so long opposed to one-another, came to an agree- 
ment upon points of doctrine ; though each pretended 
still to adhere to their fonner opinions. The differen- 
ces or apparent differences, were explained away ; and 



13 

it was admitted that the schism between the two Church- 
es was owing to a misunderstanding" on the part of each 
respecting the doctrines of the other. They came to 
this amicable conclusion, when the supposed points of 
difference were calmly and dispassionately investigated; 
although it had been previously supposed, and for a 
lengthened period too, that the split between the 
Churches involved the very essentials of Christianity. 
But the misfortune was that the amicable termination 
or decision of the Council did not produce a lasting ef- 
fect. It was soon disregarded ; the old misunderstand- 
ing again revived ; and the breach, which should have 
remained closed and been forgotten, became wider than 
ever — a proof among many others that mankind have a 
particular predilection for disputation and warfare. 

* Soevit amor ferri et scelerata insania belli. 

The Catholic and Protestant rehgions do not differ so 
widely from one another as some people imagine, who 
do not take the trouble of making the necessary enquiry, 
or who are not competent to the task.f The fundamen- 
tal principles of both are the same — the belief in God, 
the inspiration of the Scriptures, and in the Divinity of 
Jesus Christ. The respective Liturgies — the Missal and 
the Book of Common Prayer — bear a striking resem- 
blance to one another ; there is a remarkable correspon- 
dence in the selection and arrangement of the respec- 
tive Collects, Epistles and Gospels for the Year. The 
practice of Confession is also recognised in the Protes- 

* Al] sword in hand rush furious to the fray, 
And battl'ing is the order of the day. 

f " The chief points to he discussed are, the Canon of the 
sacred Scriptures, Faith, Justification, the Mass, the Sacra- 
ments, the authority of tradition, of Councils, of the Pope, the 
celibacy of the Clergy, language of the Liturgy, invocation of 
Saints, respect for images, prayers for the dead. On most of 
these, it appears to me, that there is no essential difference be- 
tween Catholics and Protestants. The existing diversity of 
opinion arises, in most cases, from certain forms of words which 
admit of satisfactory explanation; or from the ignorance or 
misconceptions which ancient prejudice or ill-will produce and 
strengthen, but which could be removed.'* 

Dr. Doyle's Letter to Mr. Robinson. 



14 

tant Liturgy as well as that of fasting and abstinence. 
The three Creeds — or main standards of orthodoxy — 
are common to both. The celebration of the Lord's 
Supper retains all the essentials of the Mass ; and the 
essential condition required for the worthy reception of 
the Holy Sacrament — purity of conscience — is the same 
in both Churches. Both agi'ee that it is a great sin to 
receive unworthily ; but that the virtue of the body and 
blood of Christ, or a superabundance of Divine Grace is 
confen^ed on the ^vorthy communicant. The difference 
as to the exact nature of the Sacrament or its in^-isible 
contents, turns principally on metaphysical questions re- 
lating to certain attributes of matter called substance 
and accident. If we except Extreme Unction, the Pro- 
testants admit all the other leading rites of the Cathohc 
Church ; though they do not give them all the name of 
Sacraments ; of which they only admit two, properly so 
called — Baptism and the Lord's Supper. This makes 
the dispute rather verbal than otherwise. The Church 
of England concurs with the Church of Rome in admit- 
ting three essential orders of the hierarchy — Bishops, 
Priests, and Deacons. Catholic Di^dnes acknowledge 
the sudordinate orders to be only of Ecclesiastical in- 
stitution. The dispute concerning papal jurisdiction is 
more a question of Church discipline than of faith. The 
primacy of the Pope as to jurisdiction over the Univer- 
sal Church must be allowed not to be very extensive. 
For what extent of jurisdiction did he ever exercise over 
the Patriarchates of the east — Constantinople, Alexan- 
dria, Jemsalem and Antioch ? The celibacy of the 
Clergy is admitted on aU hands to be a matter of dis- 
cipline ; and could not by itself form any ground for 
quarrel between the two Churches. Add to all this tlie 
sameness or identity of their morahty, as contained in 
the sacred volume common to both — the Holy Scrip- 
tures, and in their respective hturgies, homilies, ser- 
mons and authorised books of rehgious instruction and 
devotion. Tlie decalogue fonns the com-mon substra- 
tum of their moral code ; for the dispute concerning 
image-making and image -worship, if properly consider- 
ed, is a matter of little importance. 

This universal coincidence respecting morals should 



15 

form a bond of union between the great family of man- 
kind. The Gospel of the Christians as to this matter 
differs very little from the offices of TuUy or the Manual 
of Epictetus. All religions agree in commendation of 
the social virtues and in the condemmation of those vices 
that militate against the welfare of m^ankind. Lactan- 
tius — one of the most distinguished of the Latin Fa- 
thers — observed, on seeing this happy coincidence, that 
if the various precepts and maxims of the philosophers 
were collected together and digested into one moral 
code, it would differ but little from Christianity. This 
identity as to morals should form a bond of union be- 
tween all sects and parties. Sublimity, indeed, of cha- 
racter, any more than baseness, was never confined to 
one particular class of religionists. 'Tis high time for 
all parties to consider that exact unifonnity in religion 
or in religious matters, is not to be expected. The ex- 
perience of all past timx€s is a sufficient warranty to 
come to this conclusion. 

From the first dawn of the Gospel the Christians 
have been split into sects and divisions. Nicholas, one 
of the Seven Deacons, held strange opinions concern- 
ing marriage ; and many points of disagreement existed 
in the Apostolic times between the Jewish and Gentile 
converts. St. Peter sanctioned the peculiarities of the 
former, St. Paul those of the latter, both Apostles of 
course considering their disputes of little importance, 

* Soepe rixatuT de lana caprina. 

The most violent polemics are ever found among the 
half-learned and half-witted. The uniformity even of 
the orthodox ought to be understood in a qualified sense ; 
the bond of Communion was often more apparent than 
real ,- and this in regard to the highest mysteries. The 
term Corisubstantial omoousios, adopted by the first 
Council of Nice, contrary to a prior Council held at 
Antioch against Paul of Samosata — was not understood 
in the same sense by all the fathers of the Council nor 
by their successors. The clashing doctrines of Nesto- 
rius and Eutiches turned chiefly upon words; which 

* Men wrangle oft, they know not why. 
B 2 



16 

were the sources of endless perplexity and division. It 
would be easy to shew that both doctrines were to be 
found at one and the same time within the pale of or- 
thodoxy. The Greeks and Latins long before their se- 
paration differed on several points ; and even the Latins 
themselves have been always divided into adverse class- 
es, violently disputing about the abstruse questions of 
grace and free will, prescience and predestination. 

Protestants object to many observances or rites of 
religious worship in the Catholic Religion, which are 
objected too likewise by Catholics themselves. Between 
the enlightened of both classes, there are not many 
shades of difference. Protestants should estimate the 
Catholic religion, not from the opinions or errors of the 
ignorant, but from the doctrines of the well-informed. 
The creed of one is of much larger dimensions than that 
of the other. Catholic uniformity in respect to these 
two descriptions must be considered merely to regard 
certain points ; and, indeed to resemble the unifonuity 
among other classes of religionists. The Catholic Cler- 
gy are divided into secular and regular ; the latter com- 
monly called Friars, in whose hands religion assumes 
peculiar features altogether. The devotional exercises 
prescribed by them are very different from those pre- 
scribed by the secular clergy, who for the most part 
agree with Protestants in attaching little value to Ha- 
bits, Scapularies, Cords, Agnus Dei's, and the bread of 
St. Nicholas. No doubt the ignorant and the vulgar 
attach great importance to this consecrated trumpery ; 
but the secular clergy and the well infoniied of the lait}^ 
turn it into ridicule, and yet do not on that account 
cease to be orthodox. The only rational ground of com- 
plaint on the part of Protestants on this score should be 
that the Catholic Church permits such things ; but they 
should be persuaded at the same time that the Catholic 
religion rests upon a different foundation. It may also 
be expected that an amendment \vill take place in these 
matters. This is the age for alteration and improvement. 
The Catholic Church has altered her precepts respect- 
ing fasting and abstinence, retrenched a number of fes- 
tivals, improved her Liturgy, and made many coitcc- 
tions in her Breviary and books of devotion. All this 



17 

corresponds to tlie principles of Protestantism, which 
supposed that the Catholic religion, as it was generally 
understood and practised, stood in need of retrench- 
ment and reform. Protestants should hail this advance 
towards them as an omen of still fm'ther approximation. 

No class of Catholics should condemn Protestants on 
the score of differences in rehgion. They ought to at- 
tach great importance to the remarkable coincidences 
that happily subsist between all parties. Protestants do 
not pray to the Saints ; but then this is admitted to be 
a superfluous or unnecessaiy species of devotion,"^ to the 
practice of which, consequently, no one is bound. They 
have abolished the Mass, that is to say, they have re- 
jected the term~ itself, and they have retrenched many 
of the ceremonies of di\'ine worship, perhaps without 
sufficient cause. But it should not be imagined that 
they have nothing to say in justification of this retrench- 
ment. "Vv^hat Catholics call the Mass, Protestants call 
the celebration of the Lord's Supper — the identical ap- 
pellation it originally had. It should be considered also 
that the celebration of this rite was very different for- 
merly fi'om what it is now. In the first ages the Eu- 
charist or the Lord's Supper was celebrated with the 
utmost simplicity. t Iii process of time prayer was ad- 
ded to prayer, and ceremony to ceremony, until at length 
by repeated additions and improvemicnts, it assumed its 
present appearauce. There is not even still a perfect 
uniformity in this particular. The Mass of the Domi- 
nicans has its peculiarities, and is less complicated than 
the Mass in general use. The same may be said of se- 
veral particular Chmx*hes on the Continent. 

The general belief of the people is that the ^Nlass was 
always what it is now : and that the retrenchments 
made by Protestants were mere novelties. This behef is 
owing to their ignorance of Church Histor}% and because 
they do not make the necessary enquiry. It was not 

* Milner, 

^^ t Pope Gregory in Book VII. Epistle 63, has these \vords : 
^' Mos Apostoloriim fiiit ut ad ipsam soluniniodo orationem do- 
minicam oblationis hostiam consecrarent." They merely ad- 
ded the Lord's Praver to the words of consecration. 

B 3 



18 

until after, the lapse of many ages that the elevation of 
the Host was prescribed, or that the festival of Corpus 
tJhristi was instituted, or that processions in honor of 
the Sacrament were ordained. If a Priest were now to 
celebrate Mass without elevating the Host in imitation 
of antiquity — which is acknowledged to be the great 
guide in matters of religion — ^he would not only scan- 
dahze the congregation, but even run the risk of being 
roughly handled. The Protestants neglect this cere- 
mony. But then see how the case stands. It is cer- 
tain that in the ancient Church, in the ApostoHc times, 
in the early ages, the ceremony of elevating the Host 
at Mass or at the celebration of the Lord's Supper, was 
neither practiced nor known : whence it follows that the 
suppression of the ceremony was in accordance with an- 
tiquity, and opposed to what may be termed a modern 
innovation. 'Tis evident from this, that Protestants in 
this particular, have a show of reason at their side, for 
which they should get credit. Another reason why 
ill-informed Catholics are loud in the condemnation of 
Protestants is their refusing to acknowledge the infalli- 
bility of the Roman Catholic Church. Yet this is a ne- 
cessary consequence of their behef that she gives a sanc- 
tion or a permission to error. Let us examine this 
question a little. The common notion people entertain 
of infallibihty is, that whatever is taught and prescribed 
by the Church, is conformable to truth and divine reve- 
lation. This notion cannot be correct, for the people 
are taught through the medium of individuals, who may 
and do inculcate many errors and superstitions. This 
infallibihty should be supposed to extend to whatever is 
embodied in religion by Church authority. Yet this is 
not the case ; to prove which it is sufficient to refer to 
the Roman Breviary — the office book of the Secular 
Clergy — which contains old women's tales in abun- 
dance. There is also a variety of other Bre\aaries sanc- 
tioned by the Church teeming with fables. This nar- 
rows considerably the boundaries of infallibility. We 
may go farther. There are some Collects in the Chmxh 
service founded on apocryphal stories. All this makes 
against the received notions of infallibility. The feast 
of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary is ce- 



19 

lebrated on the eighth of December — a festival founded 
on the doctrine that the Virgin Mary came into the 
world untainted by original sin. Yet this doctrine has 
been rejected by Cathohc theologians. This looks hke 
an inconsistency. In the middle ages for an immense 
period, a vast number of spm*ious works affecting reli- 
gion and Church government passed as genuine. The 
most famous were the decretals ; which were fabricated 
and employed dexterously enough to enlarge the boun- 
daries of papal jurisdiction. The decretals purporting 
to be official rescripts of the early Popes regarding 
the government of neighbouring and distant Churches. 
Their pubhcation consequently gave the sanction of the 
highest antiquity to the towering supremacy of the Holy 
See. Church infallibility took no notice for centuries 
of these spurious documents ; and, what is more strange, 
the deception itself proceeded from the very somxe or 
centre of infallibility. The Church did not always ap- 
pear to know the exact boundary of her own jurisdic- 
tion. She suffered sentence of condemnation to be pro- 
nounced on Copernicus and Galileo for the discoveries 
they made in the Solar system. She mistook truths in 
Astronomy for errors in Religion : and wandered out of 
her province altogether. It was also this same want of 
knowledge respecting her jurisdiction, that involved 
her constantly in an ocean of pohtical troubles ; and 
made her imagine that the whole world owed her in all 
things, fuU and unquahiied obedience. From all this 
and many more things that may be said, it seems to fol- 
low that Church infallibihty is of very narrow extent, 
and that Protestants may shew some cause for demur- 
ring to it altogether. 

It is, however, generally admitted — and here is a com- 
mon ground of agreement — that the Christian Church 
is under the special protection of an overruling Provi- 
dence ; and that the great essential doctrines of Chris- 
tianity will be preached and propagated to the end of 
time. Some theologians have, as they think, with good 
reasons, rejected the term infaUibility as not applicable 
to the Church, and substituted " indefectibilit}-" as a 
more appropriate term — -a term importing merely the 
permanency and stabihty of the Christian Reh2:ion. 



20 

Protestants agreeably to the Thirty-nine Articles, ac- 
knowledge Church or hierarchical authority in matters 
of religion — namely- — to preach the Gospel, to admi- 
nister Sacraments, and to regulate disciphne. But they 
admit no authority over articles of faith, nor any au- 
thority whatever but with due limitations. For they 
aver that the perversity of human nature, from which 
ecclesiastics are not exempt, manifests itself in sacred 
as well as profane matters. It may be here remarked, 
that notwithstanding the constant intercourse which, if 
credit be due to the lives and wTitings of the Saints, 
took place between the visible and invisible world, Ca- 
tholic theologians admit that the Church has never re- 
ceived any new revelation ; and that she can make no 
new addition to the body of doctrine originally revealed 
and delivered. This opinion agrees in the abstract with 
Protestantism. But there is a difference between the 
parties when they begin to reason on the matter. The 
Catholics conclude from the present to the past, whereas 
the Protestants conclude from the past to the present. 
However even this difference should be qualified : for 
the Catholic Church permits questions to be examined 
in detail and a priori with a view of shewing satisfacto- 
rily the conformity between things past and present. 

To pursue this question of Church differences and 
agreements throughout would lead us too far. We trust 
we have said enough here for our present purpose, and 
made it sufficiently plain that there is much less ground 
than is generally imagined, for mutual antipathies on 
the score of religion — that neither party should ima- 
gine that reason and revelation are entirely on their own 
side — that Protestants ought carefully to discriminate, 
and not lay the errors of the ignorant Catholic at the 
door of the enlightened ; the latter of whom differ much 
m.ore from the former than they do from Protestants 
themselves — that the Catholic Religion should be se- 
parated from a number of extravagancies w^hich chance, 
or wickedness, or imposture has endeavoured to engraft 
on it, and which, in the course of time, as the w^orld 
becomes enlightened, and human knowledge progresses, 
may be expected gradually to disappear, and at length 
to vanish altog-ether. 



21 

We trust we have also made manifest that Ro- 
man Cathohcs should be slow to pass an absolute con- 
demnation on Protestants, as if they can assign no rea- 
sons for the retrenchments they have made on the score 
of religion ; or that they cannot justify the course they 
pursue in this respect by arguments of a very plausible 
description. Add to this the mutual coincidence or 
identity that Exists in aU the leading principles or te- 
nets of religion ; and in all the precepts and maxims of 
morality. Perhaps we may characterize the difference 
betv/een the two classes in these few words — that one 
errs in plus, the other in minus; so that if some retrench- 
ments took place at one side and some additions on the 
other, both parties, notwithstanding all their past hos- 
tilities, may be brought to approximate. Many great 
and good men have wished for this happy consumma- 
tion and have thought it possible. Erasmus thought 
so, Melancthon thought so, Grotius dwelt with compla- 
cency on the subject ; and Dupin, together with many 
able Divines his cotemporaries, actually entered upon the 
great and glorious task of effecting it. But they did not 
succeed; the times were not ripe for it; the light of know- 
ledge, confined to a few, had not begun yet to diffuse it- 
self among the mass of the people ; the sun of religious 
liberty had not yet risen on the world. Under such un- 
toward circumstances what could be expected ? What 
agreement could take place between sects who misre- 
presented, hated, and persecuted one another .^ But 
the times are altered, and altered vastly for the better. 
The light of knowledge is diffusing itself in all direc- 
tions ; intollerance is every where flying before the face 
of religious liberty ; and Christian sectaries, whom bad 
laws had kept asunder, are now by the enactment of 
good ones, coming together in friendly contact and be- 
ginning to amalgamate. Is not this the commencement 
of a new and better order of things — a new period in 
the annals of the world — which, it is to be hoped, wiU 
proceed with a steady progress, dissipating the mists of 
religious prejudices, exhibiting aU things in their pro- 
per light, and preparing the minds of all sects and par- 
ties for the complete establishment of religious sympa- 
thy, charity, benevolence, harmony, and peace. 



22 

Ultima ciimad venit jam carminis setas, 

Magnus ab integro soecloriim nascitur ordo. 

Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt saturnia regna, 

Jam nova j^rogenies coelo demittitur aito, 

"ITie last great age foretold by sacred rhymes, 

Renews its finisli'd course : Satiirnian times, 

Rol] round again ; and mighty years^ begun 

From their first orb, in radiant circles run 

The base degen'rate iron oifspring ends, 

A golden progeny from heav'n descends. — Dryden. 

A few words as to the following essay. The subject 
is practical and of no little importance in the present 
critical conjuncture. This is the age for alterations 
and improvements in Politics and Religion ; society is 
assuming ne^v forms and appearances ; for the better 
in the opinion of some, for the w^orse in the judgment 
of others. The Irish Protestant Church is undergoing 
a process of thi« kind ; and it is supposed to be in con- 
templation to place the Irish Catholic Church upon a 
new footing. Legislation in this country, until a late 
period, contemplated the ultimate failure of the Irish 
Catholic Religion. This idea is given up ; the system 
has changed, and the hypothesis of the permanency of 
this same Religion forms now the substratum of legis- 
lative enactments. Its connexion with the State seems 
a necessary consequence of this altered state of things ; 
nor should it be a matter of surprise that the guardians 
of the State should seek to have some connexion with 
a body, who, from the functions they exercise, must 
have a mighty infiuence on the morals of the commu- 
nity. Good policy requires there should be a Catholic 
Church Establishment in Ireland ; and every true friend 
ta the public welfare should wish for its speedy forma- 
tion. There are many who think differently. To them 
we recommend the perusal of the following sheets. We 
are in favor of an establishment of this kind ; and we 
think for very substantial reasons. We argue from 
facts, from the relations of society, from the disposition 
of man, from the nature of Religion, but above all from 
the canons and practice of the Church. Our object is 
to do good, to remove the wrong impressions of indi'- 
viduals, and to benefit the community. No doubt we 
shall be condemned by many ; by certain descriptions 



23 

of persons who cling to long'-clierislied ideas, who are 
swaved by prejudices, who cannot bear contradiction, 
who will not acknowledge their errors, or who, whether 
from conviction or for party purposes, have taken their 
stand upon an opposite system. But we hope to bring 
conviction to the minds of some, to make others hesi- 
tate, and at all events to gain the approbation of the 
moderate, the rational, the enlightened, and tile reflect- 
ing. We have v€ntured to speak freely and to make 
statements that perhaps will give offence. ^Ye fear in- 
deed that some Churchmen w^ill be provoked and scan- 
dalized at the liberties we take in this respect. But 
w^e think they have made out a case against themselves; 
and that we could not well handle the subject other- 
w^ise. Yet they should not be angry; for the whole 
drift and bearing of the matter is to improve the con- 
dition of the hierarchy, and to promote the true interests 
of Religion. If w^e have advanced any thing wrong or 
reasoned inconclusively, we shall, if the thing be point- 
ed out, be ready to retract or to acknowledge our error. 
We have always spoken our mind fearlessly, both on 
Religion and Politics ; and we now without mincing 
matters or doing things by halves, commit ourselves to 
the public. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Catholic Church in Ireland has been now for a 
very long period without any legal provision for the 
subsistence of her Ministers. This deficiency, however, 
has been in a great measure supplied by the customary 
contributions of their own flocks. Many persons are of 
opinion that this dependent state of the clerical body is 
conducive to the good of religion, and should by all 
means be continued, while others on the contrary assert 
that the interests of religion and the welfare of the com- 
munity, would be much better promoted by the forma- 
tion of a Catholic Church Establishment. The subject 
naturally divides itself into two branches — the first — 
whether the present system of ecclesiastical finance 
should be persevered in ? And in case not, whether a 
State provision should be substituted ? In order to de- 
termine the first question, it will be necessary to en- 
quire minutely into the present mode of subsistence of 
the Irish Catholic Clergy ; and to see their various and 
multiplied contrivances, to procure or extract money 
from their congregations. 



CHAPTER 11. 

The noisy declaimers of the day insist that the Cler- 
gy should depend for their subsistence upon the volun- 
tary contributions of their flocks ; for that otherwise 
they would not attend to the duties of their ministry. 
It is not perhaps easy to define what is here meant by 
the phrase ** voluntary contribution." No doubt the 
money given to the Catholic Clergy for their support, 
or for the performance of their functions, is not paid 
under the sanction of law\ Priests cannot take any le- 
gal steps or institute any civil process for the recovery 
of Church dues. But are all payments not compellable 
by law, to be denominated voluntary contributions ? 
Can monies paid through terror or under the influence 
of public opinion, or through a sense of commutative 
justice, be classed under this head ? Doubtless many 



25 

persons cheerfully contribute to the support of their 
Clergy and pay without reluctance upon every necessary 
occasion. But, on the other hand, very many act a 
different part — many who w^ould, if left to their own 
free choice, pay not a single stiver into the ecclesiasti- 
cal treasury. These persons part with their money 
through terror of public exposure and the superstitious 
fear of sacerdotal hostility. Church dues, in short, are 
sanctioned by custom, and exacted by an authority as 
powerful — perhaps more powerful — than that of the law 
of the land. As to the mercenary motive attributed to 
the Clergy by the advocates of the present system, we 
shall advert to it at an opportune time hereafter. 



CHAPTER III. 

The mode of exacting clerical dues is quite arbitrary 
and capricious ; fixedness and uniformity are out of the 
question. Almost every thing depends upon the tem- 
per and disposition of the Clergyman. There are salu- 
tary regulations in every diocess, respecting Church dues 
as well as other points of Church discipline — put forth 
by episcopal and synodical authority. Specific sums are 
laid down as the remuneration to be demanded and paid 
for the performance of such and such religious rites — 
for the celebration of Marriage, or the oblation of the 
Mass, or the half-yearly administi*ation of the Eucha- 
rist. These authorized exactions as may be supposed 
are moderate enough, and w^ould not be at all adequate 
to supply the wants of an aspiring Priesthood. Every 
Priest, therefore, looking to his peculiar necessities, or 
to self-interest, makes the most he can of his ministrv, 
and multiplies his exactions without any reference to 
statute law, or episcopal authority. Owing to this de- 
partm^e from fixed rules, the strangest discrepancy pre- 
vails even in the same diocess, as to the Church demands 
made upon the people. Some Priests, in consequence 
of their extravagance or their avarice, are much more 
severe in their exactions than others. They make high- 
er demands for Christenings, for Weddings, for Mass- 
es, for Confessions, for Funerals. It is a fact also that 

c 



26 

the exactions are continually on the increase ; and that 
the main attention of the Clergy appears to be directed 
towards the enlargement of their incomes. The dues 
are now nearly double what they were thirty years ago ; 
so that, strange as it may appear, amid the decay of 
trade and commerce, agriculture and manufacture, the 
revenues of tlie Irish Catholic Church are in a constant, 
steady, progressive state of improvement. 



CHAPTER IV. 

This state of things is every where exciting murmurs « 
The people exclaim loudly against such Priests as are 
remarkable for the severity of their exactions ; while 
they are loud in their commendations of those who are 
moderate in their demands. Tlie latter description, in- 
deed, is not numerous, and the number is not on the in- 
crease — the new comers, for the most part, naturally 
enough, seeking like their neighbours for an augmenta- 
tion of revenue. Hence it may be expected, that the 
system of capricious and extraordinary exaction will 
soon become general, as will also the popular outcry 
against it. 



CHAPTER V. 

Two observations here very naturally present them- 
selves ; the total disregard on the part of the Clergy, of 
tiie diocesan statutes ; and the unaccountable supineness 
of the Bishops in respect to their enforcement. No- 
thing in regard to ecclesiastical finance but discrepance, 
capriciousness, and disorganization. Can all this be for 
tiie good of religion ? Is it sei^^iceable to the character 
dF the Priesthood ? Or does it promote the piety of the 
people ? The scenes of former times may be acted over 
again, and with more effect. Whiteboyism may appear 
once more upon the stage. Captain Right, or Captain 
Rock may set himself in opposition to clerical exactions 
of every description, and may venture to regulate at 
once, the revenues of both Churches. The people are 
losing their respect for the Priests and for Religion; 



27 

which is now, to all appearance, rendered completely 
subservient to the exaction of money. The Priest and 
his flock are continually coming into hostile colhsion on 
pecuniary matters — the former endeavouring to enforce 
his demands by the dint of ten*or ; the latter paying 
with the utmost reluctance, and quite ripe for shaking 
off the expensive yoke of clerical authority. Thus does 
the present unseemly state of ecclesiastical finance de- 
range Church disciphne in respect to all orders and 
classes — the Bishops, the Clergy, and the People. 



CHAPTER VI. 

It is a question, whether, notwithstanding the in- 
crease of Church dues, the amount of Church revenues 
be more than what is reasonable. The fact is that even 
the Priest who exacts most has not an extraordinary in- 
a)me. Scarcely any parish pelds four hundred per 
annum ; and many a parish does not yield one thu'd of 
that sum. In general Priests are in debt, for two very 
substantial reasons — the scantiness of their incomes, 
and the necessar}^ expenses of their establishments. In 
former times, the CPcthoIic Clergy lived in the most 
homely style. In their dress, their manners, their dwell- 
ings, their tables, they stood little higher than the com- 
mon farmers. With a few exceptions they had no idea 
whatever of high life ; of being clothed in pm-ple and 
fine linen, and faring sumptuously every day. They 
needed not, therefore, such an amount of revenue as is 
necessaiy for the more consequential and more expen- 
sive Clergy of the present times. The state of Catholic 
society and of the Cathohc Church of Ireland is consi- 
derably altered. The humility or the obscurity of for- 
mer times, has enthely disappeared and is forgotten. 
The country Priest now copes -^ith the country Squire, 
keeps sporting dogs, controls elections, presides at poli- 
tical clubs, and sits '' cheek by jowl" at public din- 
ners and public assemblies, with Peers of the land and 
Members of Parliament. Would the former humble 
standard of Church revenues be adequate to the expen- 
diture of men of this aspiring and consequential descrip* 

c2 



28 

tion ? The extraordinary exactions, therefore, that are 
&o much complained of, are the necessary consequence of 
the extraordinary change of circumstances ; and if the 
people, in their savage obstinancy, refuse compliance, 
what follows, but that the present system of finance be- 
ing unsuited to the times, yet still espoused by the in- 
considerate multitude, the matter should be taken en- 
tirely out of their hands, and a new system substituted, 
which would be fully adapted to meet the alteration 
that has taken place in the religious and political world ? 
It may be right to observe that in the present defective 
state of things, the rich Catholics contribute in general 
but little to the support of their Clergy. They pay no- 
thing in proportion to their rank and means. They are 
extremely deficient in this respect ; so that the whole 
burden of the Priesthood, as to their support, rests it 
may be said, on the shoulders of the poor industrious, 
labouring classes. There might be some honourable 
exceptions ; but the general proposition is true. In fact 
the great folk among the Irish Catholics, keep aloof 
from the Priests ; and seem to care very little whether 
they are in comfortable circumstances or otherwise — 
whether it is that thev do not believe in the religion 
they ]3rofess, or that in the excess of their foppishness, 
they imagine it is administered by very contemptible 
personages. However this may be, their refusal or their 
negligence in the matter of Church contribution, is a 
very serious omission, and affords a powerful argument 
for a change in the present preposterous system of 
Church finance. 



CHAPTER VIL 

The revenue of the Parish Priest is derived from a 
variety of sources. There are Confession dues. Marriage 
dues. Baptism dues. Mass dues, and dues for Anointing. 
He is also paid at times for attendance at Funerals. 
Confession furnishes the most steady and constant 
source of revenue. Twice a year he collects Confession 
money, under the denomination of Christmas and Eas- 
tei' offerings. The mode of making this collection is 



29 

not very consonant to the spirit of religion. The Priest 
selects one or two houses in every plough-land or neigh- 
bourhood, where he holds according to appointment 
what are called '* stations of confession \" and it is re- 
quired that the families all about should meet him when 
he comes among them, upon these occasions ; should 
make their confessions, receive the Holy Sacrament and 
finally pay the customary dues. It sometimes happens 
that this business is not transacted quietly. If increased 
dues are demanded — a thing of occasional occurrence — 
disagreeable and sometimes scandalous altercations en- 
sue. Similar scenes occur when individuals attend and 
crave time for payment ; while such as absent them- 
selves, unless they send the dues as an apology, are ge- 
nerally made the subject of public abuse and exposure. 
AU these things take place in connection with the cele- 
bration of Mass and the administration of tvro Sacra- 
ments — Penance and the Eucharist or the Lord's Sup- 
per. The association must be admitted to be rather an 
unholy one. If no money was to be paid on such occa- 
sions, all things would go on well and the w^hole scene 
would be religious and edifying. But the intermixture 
of money transactions and money altercations, changes 
the entire scene and proves at once a fatal counteraction 
to all the previous works of devotion. Most certainly 
the good of religion requires an alteration in this mat- 
ter. But supposing all things to go off quietly and 
mthout a murmur, is it right that the payment of mo- 
ney should be coupled with the administration of reli- 
gious rites ? The custom on the face of it bears an un- 
holy complexion. It transforms religious rites into mer- 
chantable commodities ; vrhich the Priest prices and 
turns to his own advantage in the best manner he can. 
He gives and he gets quid pro quo. This is the appear- 
ance of the thing ; and the common people do imagine 
that they pay their money in lieu of getting Confession 
and Communion. So deeply indeed, is this persuasion 
engraven on their minds, that they consider themselves 
exempt from the obligation of payment, unless they ac- 
tually get Absolution and the Holy Sacrament— that 
is — value for their monev. 

' c3 



30 



CHAPTER VTII. 

Come we now to another item of ecclesiastical reve- 
nue — Marriage Money. Marriage is universally ac- 
knowledged to be a holy rite ; but it is numbered by the 
Catholic Church among the Sacraments of the new law. 
The administration of it therefore, should be accompa- 
nied by every circumstance of solemnity and holiness — 
to the utter exclusion of every thing of an opposite des- 
cription. But is this the case ? By no means. The 
administration of this Sacrament or rite, generally speak- 
ing, takes place under circumstances by no means con- 
formable to the spirit of religion ; and all this in conse- 
quence of the pecuniary demands made on such occa- 
sions. The first thing done, w^hen there is question 
of marrying a couple, is to make a bargain about the 
marriage money. This sometimes causes a considera- 
ble delay. The remuneration or stipend prescribed by 
the diocesan statutes is never thought of for a moment. 
Indeed all statutes respecting money matters are a mere 
dead letter. The Priest drives as hard a bargain as he 
can, and strives to make the most of the occasion. 
Marriages are sometimes broken off in consequence of 
the supposed exorbitance of the demands. All this is 
in opposition to the intention of the Church, and the 
spirit of religion. It is simony to all intents and pur- 
poses- — that is selling a Sacrament or spiritual thing for 
money ; and putting on it a worldly value according to 
the dictates of avarice and capiice without any reference 
to fixed rules and regulations. But this is only a preli- 
minary proceeding. Demands of money are made upon 
such as are present at the marriage — at least upon the 
male portion of the assembly. This gives rise not un- 
frequently to a new and unhallowed scene. The trans- 
action may by chance pass off quietly ; that is when 
every one contributes according to the wishes and ex- 
pectation of the Clergyman. But this does not always 
happen. In general the demands are considered unrea- 
sonable, and the Priest is disappointed in his expecta- 
tions. Some endeavour to avade the payment of any 
contribution : others give but little, and the few that 
please th-e Priest are mere exceptions to the general 



31 

rule. What is the consequence ? The Clergyman after 
begging and entreating for some time to little purpose, 
gets at length into a rage, utters the most bitter invec - 
tives against individuals, abuses, perhaps, the whole 
company and is abused himself in turn, until at length 
the whole house becomes one frightful scene of confu- 
sion and uproar : and all this takes place at the admi- 
nistration of one of the Sacraments of the Catholic 
Church — owing too to the present system of ecclesiasti- 
cal finance. If nothing was to be paid on these occa- 
sions all this scandal would be avoided ; and the mar- 
riage would be celebrated in a suitable manner. The 
money part of the transaction causes all the Canons of 
the Church touching Matrimony to be set at defiance. 
The publication of the banns prescribed by the Council 
of Trent is neglected : and why so } Because money 
must be raised for the maintenance of the Bishop ; to 
whom belongs the mulct for License or Dispensation. 
The pecuniary wants of the Bishop are the weighty rea- 
sons by which it is said he is moved to dispense in the 
triple publication of the banns of Matrimony.* This 
omission gives rise to numberless abuses. Clergymen, 
particularly in cities and large towns, are frequently im- 
posed on by persons who present themselves for mar- 
riage. Clandestinity is practised with ease ; children 
get married without the consent or knowledge of their 
parents ; and persons easily succeed in throwing the 
Priest off his guard, who by reason of afiinity or consan- 
guinity, or other mutual relationship labour under ca- 
nonical impediments. This would not take place if mo- 
ney were out of the question. For in that case, the 
banns, as in other countries where there are Church 
Establishments, would be regularly published ; and no 
advantage could be taken of the comparative privacy 
with which the business under existing circumstances 
may be transacted. The banns, by right, should be pub- 
lished and the marriage celebrated in the parish Chapel 
or public place of worship, openly before the congrega- 
tion. Tliis is the Canonical mode — a mode that cannot 
be observed under the present system of Church finance. 

* See Appendix, 2, ^ 



32 

The necessity or the eagerness for money and the dan- 
ger of losing it by delay, occasions the Clergyman to 
dispense in the necessary prehminaries for marriage. 
The Church orders that those who are preparing for 
marriage should approach the tribunal of penance and 
make a sacramental confession. This ordinance is agree- 
able to the doctrine that Matrimony is one of the Sacra- 
ments of the new law ; and one of that description of 
Sacraments, which, to be received worthily requires, ac- 
cording to the doctrine of the Catholic Church, the per- 
son receiving to be in a state of grace. The preparation 
for Matrimony, therefore, should be similar to that re- 
quired for the reception of the Eucharist or Lord's Sup- 
per. This is an ordinance very little attended to ; it is 
in fact generally slurred over ; and Matrimony itself, 
though holding as to theory or doctrine, the rank and 
dignity of a Sacrament, is administered as if it were a 
ceremony having little or no connexion with religion. 
The payment of the marriage money and oftentimes the 
plate money in addition, is now the grand preliminaiy 
or preparation. Cupidity is the prime agent ; and reli- 
gion, which may thwart its gratification, is unheeded 
and unregarded. Thus does the present system of 
Church finance give rise to every species of abuse res- 
pecting Matrimony, both in regard to the clergy and the 
laity — to practices that are opposed not only to the Ca- 
nons but even to the doctrine of the Catholic Church. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Baptism Money — an item that helps not a little to 
swell the amount of Church revenue — comes next to be 
considered. Is the mode and manner of exacting this 
contribution consonant to the spirit of religion or the 
Canons of the Church ? Baptism is allowed almost uni- 
versally to be one of the principal Sacraments of the 
new law ; and to be of indispensable necessity. It is 
one of the most solemn rites of the Christian Religion. 
Nothing therefore should take place at the administra- 
tion of it, inconsistent with the sanctity that should sur- 
round it. In the early ages it was administered with 



33 

the gi'eatest solemnity in the particular Churches at 
particular times or festivals — Easter and Whitsuntide. 
Every parish Chapel or Church was furnished with a 
stone font for the baptismal water ; and it was only in 
cases of necessity, w^hen danger of death was appre- 
hended, that Private Baptism w^as administered in pri- 
vate houses. This is still the case in countries called 
Catholic ; where the ancient Canons are respected and 
the ancient discipline observed. The same custom also 
prevailed in this country in former times ; and is still 
observed by the Protestant Established Church. The 
present practice is a mere abuse or innovation— render- 
ed necessary perhaps at first by untoward circumstances; 
but which should cease as a matter of course, w^hen these 
circumstances have no longer existence. Scarcely any 
infant is at present baptized in the parish House of Wor- 
ship ; where neither font nor any thing else is to be 
found connected with the ancient mode of administering 
the Sacrament in question. The general rule is to bap- 
tize at private houses, or at the Priest's house or lodg- 
ings, and under circumstances not of a very hallowed 
description. One leading feature in the transaction on 
the part of the Priest is to get in the customar}^ offering 
and to swell if possible, its amount. The Father of the 
infant pays, as they say, for the Baptism ; the gossip 
money is dem.anded of the sponsors, who sometimes 
amount to four in number and upwards, contrary to the 
Canons of Trent, but not contrary to the pecuniary inte- 
rests of the Priest. This money is often demanded 
previous to the administration of the rite ; and if not 
promptly and satisfactorily paid scenes of abuse and re- 
crimination frequently ensue : similar indeed, to what 
takes place on occasion of marriages, only upon a smaller 
scale. Children are sometimes sent away without Bap- 
tism for lack of money, and women remain frequently a 
considerable time without being Chm-ched or purified 
after child-birth, (a great evil in their eyes) because the 
Priest has not been satisfied respecting the Baptism mo- 
ney. Intended sponsors are sometimes excluded, when 
gossip money is not forthcoming ; and others substitu- 
ted by the Priest — his own servants perhaps — to the 
great discomfort and annoyance of the parents of the 



34 

cliild, and his accompaiijang friends. Thus does the 
demand of Baptism money completely derange the ad- 
ministration of the right itself; and afford matter of 
scandal at a time when nothing should take place but 
what would afford instruction and edification. If no 
money w^ere to be demanded on these occasions ; if Bap- 
tism dues were not coupled with the administration of 
Baptism^ what would take place ? WHiat would be the 
result ? Would not the ancient discipline be rerived ; 
Would not this holy rite be administered in a holy man- 
ner, without any unhallow^ed intermixture of scandal 
and profanation ? 



CHAPTER X. 

The Priest derives money from other sources — from 
the administration of extreme Unction or Anointing the 
sick and from Masses. The custom of Anointing, which 
is founded upon some passages of St. James, but of whict 
few traces are to be found in the early ages of the 
Church, is considered in this country to be of the last 
importance ; so much so, that no misfortune is account- 
ed greater than for a poor mortal to depart this Hfe with- 
out its reception. The poor family are quite happy if 
the deceased has been anointed ; but are quite unhappy 
if this should happen not to be the case. This rite is 
c^ten administered under most distressing circumstan- 
ces — amid sickness, lamentation, destitution and want ; 
yet money is demanded in most cases, particularly in 
the Country ; and instances occur of payment being de- 
manded before-hand and even of money being pocketed 
by the Priest which had been given as alms for the re- 
lief of the dying. No doubt instances of this descrip- 
tion are of rare occurrence ; but then they never should 
occur ; nor ever would occur but for the dependant state 
of the Catholic Priesthood. The demand for Anointing 
money is sanctioned by the ecclesiastical authorities ; 
like the demands for the discharge of other clerical func- 
tions. It is one of the fixed determinate dues ; and is 
in general enforced, notwithstanding the awful and me- 
lancholy circumstances that accompany the transaction. 
Often when the money is not to be had^ bitter words 



35 

take place in the very hearing and presence of the poor 
dying person. Who Trill venture to raise his voice in 
behalf of a system that leads to scenes of this descrip- 
tion ? — Scenes that must have a direct tendency to mar 
the end and object contemplated in the administration 
of the last rites of religion. Money transactions, which 
necessarily beget evil consequences, should never be 
coupled with the awful business of religion ; which in- 
deed, to have its full eifect, should stand aloof, pure, 
unmixed, undefiled, uncontaminated. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Masses too are priced like other rites of Religion. A 
person is said to get a Mass, or to have a Mass said for 
him, w^hen special mention is made of him b}^ the cele- 
brating Priest, or when he is especially recommended to 
the Almighty, at a particular part of the Canon of the 
Mass assigned for recommendations of the kind. This 
is supposed to produce great spiritual and perhaps tem- 
poral benefit to the person so recommended. This re- 
commendation is also supposed to benefit departed souls 
— that is — such as are detained in the prison of Furga- 
toTj ; and this is the reason why it is said that the Mass 
is offered for the Hving and the dead. The eincacy of 
Masses in this respect, is one of the most obscure points 
in scholastic theology, and requires the utmost exercise 
of ingenuity to be put in a tangible shape. The gene- 
ral notion is, that Masses are beneficial in some way — 
no one being able to define exactly in what this benefit 
consists. But the general idea of their efiicacy in the 
visible and invisible world, augments considerably the 
revenue of the Church. This matter is particularly in- 
sisted on at a particular season of the year — the Com- 
memoration of all Souls — the Second of November. 
Every effort is then made to interest the faithful in be- 
half of the souls in purgatory, in order to increase the 
customary contributions for Mortuary Masses. Doc- 
trines are frequently advanced on these occasions promp- 
ted by cupidity — not very consonant to reason or the 
Scriptures ; and the congregation is led into error in 



36 

order to replenish the coffers of the Priest. The love 
of filthy lucre has done much mischief of this kind in 
the Church. Is not the present dependent state of the 
Priesthood in question, a stimulus to these extravagan- 
cies and abuses ? Woidd an independent high-minded 
Priesthood descend to such sacrilegious artifices, to ex- 
tract money from the pockets of the ignorant. No 
doubt impositions of the kind will be kept up to the end 
of time under all circumstances. But then let this be 
the work of perverse individuals ; who by good discip- 
line may be detected and punished ; and not the result 
of a system receiving the sanction of Church authority. 
Mass money gives rise to a variety of abuses. It is ge- 
nerally supposed among the multitude that the JMass of 
a Friar is more efficacious than that of a secular Priest. 
What has given rise to this extravagant idea } Has it 
been disseminated by Friars themselves ? And why 
has it been disseminated } 'Tis said that the state of a 
Friar is more holy or more perfect than the state of a 
secular Priest. Is it on this account that their Mass 
possesses a peculiar efficacy ? Or is this doctrine of pe- 
cuhar efficacy propagated for the pm-pose of bringing 
more Mass money into their o^m hands, and giving 
them the advantage over the seculars in this respect ? 
Whatever may be said on the subject, there is no doubt 
that this latter takes place, and that the Friars enjoy pe- 
culiar advantages in respect to Mass money. The scan- 
tiness of clerical emoluments, or eagemess to increase 
them, has reduced to a dead letter, the Canons of the 
Church, respecting private Masses. The Canons re- 
quire that Mass, except in very rare instances, should 
be always celebrated in the Parish Church or pubhc 
place of worship ; which indeed is set apart and conse- 
crated for that special purpose. Private Masses, or 
Masses in private houses, are occurrences of a very rare 
description, wherever these Canons are in force. This 
is not the case in Ireland, and for obvious reasons — on 
account, indeed of the emoluments arising. The Priest 
more attentive to his private interest than to the obser- 
vance of Church rule, labours to procure emplopiient in 
this way, and to establish the custom of having Mass 
celebrated periodically, in this or that private house of 



37 

some respectability as a matter of com-se ; for the poor 
and the needy are not much taken into account in such 
matters, although even from them something is gleaned 
occasionally in the way of Masses. It not unfrequently 
happens that crafty Priests make industriously a volun- 
tary offer of private Masses for the double purpose of 
ingratiating themselves into the favour of individuals, 
and of ultimately establishing for themselves a new and 
regular source of emolument. This is to go in the very 
teeth of the Canons ; and is derogatory to the majesty 
of religion. In short, the entire system at present pur- 
sued by the Irish Catholic Clergy, as to money matters, 
or matters of Church finance, is to make the very most 
of their ministry in gi^oss and in detail ; and regardless 
of consequences, to render every part and parcel of re- 
ligion, whether we regard the administration of Sacra- 
ments, or the celebration of Divine Worship, subser- 
vient to considerations of self-interest. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Other bad consequences regarding the Clergy them- 
selves, arise out of the present system of Church sup- 
port. Many among them are constantly endeavouring 
to overreach and undermine one another. Every man 
of this description looks to his own private emolument, 
regardless of all covenants or agreements expressed or 
implied. The Curate does not make a fair return to the 
Parish Priest, nor the Parish Priest, perhaps to the Cu- 
rate ; nor the Curates, where a number is associated, to 
one another. Every man gets in what he can ; and 
seems to think that he vfould be justified in appropria- 
ting the entire to himself. But this he cannot do ; for 
he must make some return of his receipts ; and this he 
does — but it is an arbitrary return, maimed, docked, cur- 
tailed. There is no lack of refined casuistry in this mat- 
ter. The Curate says he labours m-ore than the Parish 
Priest ; and therefore that he is entitled to more than his 
allotted proportion of the dues. The Parish Priest, per- 
haps will say that the Curate is too well paid and that he 
himself should have a larger dividend ; and v^'here there 

D 



are several Curates together, one will say that he is the 
senior and that he should not be placed on a level with 
the others. Sometimes they assign a sw^eeping reason for 
this clandestine abstraction of the common revenue^ — 
namely — that the dues being in themselves indetermi- 
nate and a sort of arbitrary exaction, they are at liberty 
to make an arbitrary return. The consequence of all 
this is, that Church revenue has become a mere scram- 
ble — every man striving to seize upon a larger share and 
deciding for himself in the appropriation. This is a bad 
state of things ; it is a shameful state of clerical demo- 
ralization. Common honesty is out of the question. 
Nothing but lies, schemes, duplicity, false returns ; so 
that the simple and the honest become the prey of the 
cunning and the crafty. Does not this system of cleri- 
cal dishonesty strike at the root of public morals ? Thfe 
morals of the Pastor must have an influence on the mo- 
rals of the flock. Will a Priest who has no regard to 
the sacred rites of property be earnest in exhorting the 
people to the practice of justice and fair-deahng ? Or 
will not the contagion of his example stimulate the evil 
propensities of human nature and spread infection among 
the whole flock ? Away then wdth a system, which 
leads to all these destructive consequences — a system 
which degrades religion, and tends directly to demora- 
lize both the Pastor and the Congregation. One reflec- 
tion more, and we shall be done with this part of the 
subject. Let us view the conduct of the Irish Priests, 
this time past, as instructors of their people. Have they 
attended to the preaching of the Gospel ? Have they 
inculcated the principles of the Catholic Religion ? Their 
congregations every where have shewn an utter disre- 
gard to law and to the constituted authorities ; nothing 
among them but sedition and insubordination ; burning 
and maiming; murder and massacre — mob-law, in short, 
the gi'eatest of all curses, the order of the day. What 
did the Priests — the guides and pastors of the people — 
do under these circumstances ? Did they set their faces 
against this unhappy state of things ? Did they preach 
obedience and subordination ? Did they inculcate sub- 
mission to the authority of law ; or aid in preserving 
the peace and tranquihity of society — all vvhich the3v- 



39 

were bound to do as Ministers of the Gospel and Priests 
of the Roman CathoHc Church. This is a position that 
cannot be disputed. It has been always the boast of 
the Roman Catholic Church that she teaches her chil- 
dren to observe the laws, to respect the civil magistrate, 
and to do nothing inconsistent with the public peace 
and with individual security. The Irish Catholic Priests 
have not this time past preached these doctrines to the 
people. It would be too much perhaps to say that the 
Priests themselves were the original instigators of the 
misguided multitude. There is no doubt that many of 
them acted a prominent part in the business ; and .the 
impression on the minds of the common people was 
and is, that the Priests gave it their full and unqualified 
sanction. But many of them yielded reluctantly to the 
torrent ; and appeared to give their approbation to that 
which they in reality condemed. They went with the 
multitude, instead of guiding the multitude ; and suffer- 
ed religion and morality to be completely turned topsy 
tury. What was the cause of all this ? Many causes, 
no doubt may be assigned. National and religious 
prejudices might have had a share — sectarian hatred, 
cowardice — a general perv^ersity of morals. But can it 
be said that the present state of clerical dependence for 
support upon a capricious multitude, had no share in 
determining this unbecoming conduct on the part of the 
Irish Catholic Priesthood ? The multitude held the strings 
of the clerical purse j and woe betide the unfortunate 
Priest who would set himself in opposition to their 
wishes. As a body they became all-powerful in this 
respect. The com.mon cry among them was that they 
would not uphold any Priest who would not back them 
in their proceedings, and instances could be produced 
where this threat was carried into execution ; and up- 
right individuals of the clerical body were made the ob- 
jects of every species of injustice and persecution. The 
dread of poverty and of being cast off by those to whom 
they looked for subsistence, contributed powerfully to 
make the body at large become mere time-servers, and 
overlook the obligations of their sacred ministry. It 
was a kind of general apostacy arising from base con- 
siderations of self-interest. Accordinglv thev either 
i> 2 



40 

preached or countenanced lawless combination and suf- 
fered the temple to be profaned. 

* " Dicite pontifices quid in sancto facit aurum.'* 

Would they have thus deserted the interests of religion 
and belied their own sentiments, if they did not derive 
their means of subsistence from the casual offerings of 
this same headstrong and unreflecting multitude ? If 
they had nothing to fear on this head ; if they were not 
necessiated to look for Marriage Money and Confession 
Money, and Baptism Money, and Mass Money, and 
Anointing Money, from Farmers, from Tradesmen and 
from Labourers, think ye that they would not admonish 
the people, according to the maxims of the Gospel and 
the doctrine of St. Paul, to obey those that are placed 
over us, and to be subject to the higher powers not only 
for wrath but for conscience sake ; or would they have 
suffered the house of God, w^hich should be a house of 
prayer, to be turned into a den of thieves ? Tlieir state 
of servile dependance, joined to a number of other un- 
toward circumstances, made them dum^b dogs in Israel ; 
caused them to give up or abuse the exercise of the sa- 
cerdotal authority ;* and to be unmindful of the Apos- 
tles, the Prophets, and the Law. 



CHAPTEK XIIL 

Let us now proceed to consider the second point — 
namely, whether it would be right to establish a State 
provision for the Irish Catholic Clergy; or whether 
there are good grounds for objecting to an establish- 
ment of the kind. It follows from what has been alrea- 
dy said, that some system of Church finance different 
from the present should be adopted ; which system 
should render the Priesthood independent of the multi- 
tude. This implies the substitution of a State provision 
or a provision backed by the authority of civil law. 
But perhaps this is too summary a way of deciding the 
matter. Considerable difference of opinion seems to 
prevail on this important subject. 

* " E'en religion is undermined by gold." 



41 

The question may be viewed either in a general light, 
that is, in the abstract, or in reference to the Church in 
general ; or it may be viewed in a particular light as res- 
pecting the case of the Irish Cathohc Church. It ap- 
pears to be much the fashion at the present day, to find 
fault with all Church Establishm.ents. Religion it is 
said should never be coupled with the State, nor should 
the Priesthood rest for support on the authority of law. 
In making this obseiwation we confine ourselves to these 
countries — to the British Empire. The dissenters from 
the Church by law established are, naturally enough, 
the great advocates for this doctrine ; among whom may 
be classed many others who do not faU under that deno- 
mination. All these appear to ^devv with jealousy the 
great advantages enjoyed by the Estabhshed Church ; 
which accordingly they wish to bring on a level with 
themselves, by the destiTiction of its temporahties. Self- 
interest too might egg them on in the business. The 
destruction of Church property might prove the means 
of augmenting their own. It is possible, therefore, that 
in advocating the abohtion of Church Establishments, 
they do not rest their opinion exactly on the merits 
of the question, but are influenced, perhaps without per- 
ceiving it, by considerations or motives of sefishness 
and cupidity. Let us take the que?^tioTi pe?^ pcu^tes. "Will 
they go so far as to say there should be no Church pro- 
perty ? — no ecclesiastical Endowment ? — no legal pro- 
vision of the kind, either public or private ? Will they 
place a law on the statute book to bar the rehgious be- 
nevolence of individuals ; to prevent them, suppose, fi'om 
establishing houses of worship and preachers of the Gos- 
pel, where, from the paucity or poverty of the congrega- 
tion, Christianity woidd otherwise be a dead letter ? Or 
is the Church to be ignominiously sti'ipped of the right 
of accepting the benevolence of her devoted children ? 
Is the Lord of the manor not to be allowed to leave a 
house, or a garden, or a rood of land, in perpetuuin, for 
the use and benefit of the parish Clerg^,TQan ? Is the 
Christian hierarchy or the Priesthood, contraiy to all 
the rights of freemen and citizens both in regard to 
themselves and others, to be only allowed the privilege 
of perpetual be2:2:arv and dependance ? Will anv class 
^^ ' D 3 



42 

of Dissenters go so far as to maintain all this ? We 
venture to say — no ; and yet they must be prepared to 
do so or give up the question. For the commencement 
of an estabUshment may be formed by the piety and 
bounty of a few individuals ; and doubtless this was the 
mode in w^hich Church establishments originated ; the 
good example may be followed by others ; successive 
augmentations and extensions may take place, until at 
length the independence of the Church for support, gua- 
ranteed of com'se by law, would be fully and completely 
estabhshed. The Dissenters may higgle at the amount; 
they may check the increase ; they may seek to stop its 
progress ; they may endeavour to turn into another 
course the swelling tide of religious benevolence ; they 
may labour to prevent the Church from becoming rich. 
But what w^ould all this come to ? Their arguments or 
their endeavoui's would not be in opposition to a Church 
Establishment, but to its particular mode of foi*mation ; 
not to its substance, but to its accidental qualities. But 
let us proceed. That which may be lawfully done by 
in di^-i duals, may lawfully be done by the community at 
large ; by the legislature, by the government, by the 
State — the very thing against which our Dissenters are 
most vociferous in their exclamations. But this sup- 
poses the community at large to be of one religion ; 
which is far from being the case in this diversified Em- 
pire. The endowed Church comprises but a section of 
the people, very httle if at all exceeding in number the 
dissentient portion of the population. This however 
was not always the case. It is very probable that when 
the Church was first endowed and connected with the 
State, there were no schisms or divisions respecting reli- 
gion in the British Dominions. Circumstances, indeed, 
have greatly altered since that time. A unity of senti- 
ment no longer prevails on the subject of religion. The 
kingdom is com^pletely divided against itself in this res- 
pect ; it is divided and distracted ; so much so indeed, 
that religion itself, notwithstanding all the veneration to 
which it is entitled, appears in danger of being trodden 
under foot amid the malicious rage of contending secta- 
ries. But let us not stray from our subject. The Dis- 
senters wish to strip the Established Church of its en- 



43 

dowments. If there were no dissentients there would 
not be a murmur. But because many have seceded 
from the Estabhshment, whether for good reasons or 
for bad, we shall not now enquire, an outcry is raised 
against these endowments, and a demand is made for 
their total abolition. This is to proceed at once to ex- 
tremities ; to transgress indeed, all the rules of logic, con- 
sistency, and moderation. Circumstances have changed; 
should religious endowments be therefore abolished ? — 
and Church property given to those who possess no ti- 
tle to it } By no means. Nothing more can be re- 
quired in this case than to alter or amend the appropri- 
ation : to make such a disposition of the endowments as 
that the general object originally contemplated, should 
still be accomplished — the religious benefit of the com- 
munity at large. But when and under what circum- 
stances this new appropriation, this division or subdivi- 
sion of Church property should take place, must of 
course, be a point of the utmost difficulty to determine ; 
and from its complication and the variety of interests 
involved, must require, like all other questions that af- 
fect the community at large, the slow, steady, calm deli- 
beration of the legislature. It is always hazardous to 
meddle with the existing order of things. Wild poUti- 
cians think to do every thing at once jjer saltum. But all 
jurists and philosophers affirm — and experience proves 
the justice of the remark — that great national changes 
s^hould be elfected by slow degrees. Is it because a bo- 
dy of persons through ignorance or caprice, or obstinan- 
cy, or enthusiasm, take it into their heads to become se- 
ceders from a Church Establishment, founded and root- 
ed in the hearts and affections of the people at large, 
that an inroad should at once be made upon the property 
of this same Church ? — or what is still more extrava- 
gant that the property should change owners altogether ? 
Would it not be more reasonable in the first instances, 
to wait awhile and see if this secession would acquire 
permanence and consistency ; or, what would be more 
desirable, whether the seceders themselves reconsidering 
their act, may not return to their former way of thinking, 
abandon their conventicles, and rejoin the old Establish- 
ment ? Should not the legislature hesitate and pause in 



44 

a case of this kind ? Is it right to encourage divisions 
in religion a priori ? — divisions that always nmltij)ly be- 
yond calculation the miseries of mankind. Let a case of 
moment be first made out. Let there be real, substan- 
tial sections or divisions in the community, respecting 
modes of religious worship — disjoined from each other 
by permanent walls of separation — and then it will be 
for tlie government or the legislature to arrange a new 
distribution of Church propeity. But it by no means 
follows, that the State should throw all claimants over- 
board indiscriminately; and plungle them into one fright- 
ful abyss of miseiy and destitution. 

Passing opinions got up on the spur of the moment, 
or to effect some mischievous purpose, should not be ta- 
ken much into account. Opinions of this kind are only 
the madness of the hour. The Dissenters of fomier 
times entertained no hostiht}' to Church Establishments, 
^vhatever might have been their dislike to this or that 
particular Church. In Scotland, where having first up- 
set the ancient establishment, they afterwards rejected 
the Protestant Episcopal Church, they took good care 
on the iiiins to form a Church Estabhshment of their 
own ; and exceedingly troubled they were that the en- 
doviTiients to which they succeeded, or which were ac- 
corded them were so scanty : and that they were not put 
into full and complete possession of the ancient eccle- 
siastical patrimony. They even made many fruitless 
efforts to recover the portion withheld, and frequently 
denounced, in all the extravagance of enthusiastic decla- 
mation, the criminahty of those lay-men who retained 
in their sacrilegious hands, the goods and chattels ap- 
pertaining to the Church of God. The Dissenters of 
the North of Ireland vrere satisfied that their ^Ministers 
should receive the regium donum ; and to speak in gene- 
ral, Protestantism, which dissented from the Church of 
Rome, wherever it succeeded in establishing itself upon 
the ruins of the latter, made no scruple in seizing upon 
and enjoying its temporahties. The Dissenters of the 
present day or a certain class of them, are men of a new 
fonnation ; enlightened no ,doubt, and, through pure 
philanthropy, washing to enlighten a benighted world. 
This is all vei^v fine. But it is to be feared that their 



45 

light is a mere ignis fatuus, which may lead them mto 
all the mazes of error and extravagance. It is said that 
the State should have no control over the Chiu'ch, and 
that every particular congregation should manage their 
own Church affairs. This is a matter of taste an the 
part of the Dissenters, and it may be bad taste too. 
Their Church is completely democratized and the Minis- 
ter or Pastor is at the mercy and under the control of 
the congregation. To insist upon this being adopted 
generally, is to insist that all Christians should give up 
their present notions of religion, and adopt the system 
of our new-light Dissenters. This is rather an unrea- 
sonable demand. Besides if the State and Church be 
one ; or if the State be a part of the Church, why should 
not the former, according to the very shewmg of the 
Dissenters, have some influence over the latter ? The 
idea of the Dissenters is quite in character : it is in op- 
position to the general amalgamation of things, and 
leads to nothing but schisms, sects, and divisions. 
Every thing with them must come from the multitude, 
that many-headed, flckle, capricious, inconsistent, ano- 
malous, t}Tannical monster. But Bishops should be ex- 
cluded the H ouse of Peers, and not suffered to have ^ny 
hand in the work of political legislation. Why so ? Le- 
gislation must be admitted to be a conceni of the last 
importance : involving the interests and affecting the 
morals of the community. May not the episcopal body 
afford great service in a business of this kind ? They 
should be supposed to be men of integrity, men of re- 
ligion, men of learning, men of great experience ; men, 
in short, every way quahfied to judge what laws, what 
regulations may tend to promote the public welfare. 
Why then should they be prohibited from taking a part 
in these important transactions ? Or would it not, in 
fact, be an injury to the com^munity, and afford matter 
of just complaint, if such wise and upright personages 
were contumeliously excluded from the deliberations and 
decisions of the legislature — or the Nation deprived of 
their services upon such momentous occasions ? But 
they should attend to the cure of souls. This is all cant, 
hypocrisy, and nonsense. Is not the salvation of souls 
connected with morality ? And are not good or bad mo- 



46 

rals connected witli the Ibusiness cf legislation r Are 
Bishops for ever to remain \\"ithin the precincts of their 
diocesses and never to come together and see what mea- 
sures may he in progress affecting all the particular con- 
gregations or churches over which they are appointed 
to preside : and whose general and particular interest it 
is their duty, as it should be their wishes to promote ? 
But this cry for the expulsion of the Bishops fi-om the 
house of Peers comes naturally enough from those who 
thirst for the extinction of the whole episcopal body. 



CHAPTER XIV, 

The Dissenters argue in a veiy i-ambhng way altoge- 
ther on this subject. Tliey say that in the first centu- 
ries of Christianity, the Church had no connexion with 
the State. This was the golden age of religion, when 
the Gospel was duly preached and the Sacraments duly 
administered. It should consequently be taken as a 
pattern and copied after. No doubt they consider this 
argument quite conclusive. But such is not the case. 
During the three first centuries of its existence, the 
Church had no connexion with the State. This is a 
fact. But why so r How^ did the Church stand during 
that bloody period in regard to the State — ^that is to say 
'—in regard to the Roman government ? Had she not 
to undergo a frightful smes of paraaeutionSi with vary 
-little intennission or breathing time? How could she 
foiTLi any alliance vrith her unrelenting enemy and per^ 
secutor .^ Pne thing was impossible, the supposition 
would be absurd. If the Sta^te happened to be Christian 
all that time ; and that the Chmxh, notwithstanding, 
kept aloof, then indeed the argument would have some 
weight ; but to quote her as an example for necessaiy 
imitation in a matter where she had no liberty of choice, 
has no semblance of reason or alignment. But what 
make^ completely against the Dissenters in this matter 
is, that as soon as the State became Chiistian, or rather 
partly Christian ; when the Gospel made its svay to the 
throne of the Caesars, the veiy alliance took place which 
thev SQ much deprecate. The conversion of Constan- 



tine the Great \^'as the signal for drawing furth the 
Church from its persecuted obscurity and associating it 
in all the concerns both temporal and eternal of the 
Roman Empire. Is it to be supposed that if, more than 
a century before, Antonius Pius and Marcus Aureliua 
and the great bod}^ of the Roman people had embraced 
Christianity, the Church would have refused to enter 
into this invidious alliance ; or that those great men 
would not have interposed their influence and authority 
for the benefit and triumph of true religion ? Curious 
reasoners indeed are these an ti- establishment gentry. 
The3/ quote the disciphne of the three first ages as a pat- 
tern for our guidance — that is — respecting the alliance 
of Church and State. ^Miy do they not take this dis- 
cipline as a pattern in other matters ? Why have they 
not a hierarchy in all its regular gradations, such as had 
existence in those primitive times } Why have they 
not like those early Christians the order of Bishops to 
decide independently of the laity and the inferior clergy 
all disputes and controversies respecting religion, mo- 
rality and Church disciphne ? Why do they not receive 
the Apostles' Creed into their liturgy ? Why do they 
not copy after the primitive Church in these points^ 
points that were not affected by any thing outside of 
Chris tianit}^ } And yet they would fain persuade the 
world to copy after her in that point of her discipline 
v>-hich was the result of dire necessity ; and which very 
point she gave up or abandoned so soon as an opportu- 
nity presented itself. We now wish the Dissenters joy 
upon their argument against Church and State alliance 
founded on the example of the primitive Church. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Let us pursue the matter a little higher up, and, los- 
ing sight of Christianity for the moment, have recourse 
to the Jews — the children of the ancient covenant. Our 
modern Dissenters seem to think that true religion must 
of necessity shrink with abhoiTence from all contact 
with worldly pomp and dignity. How does this idea 
square with the promulgation of the Levitical Law ? 



4ft 

They wisli to decide every thing by the authority of the 
sacred TvTitings, (although their silly appeal to the ex- 
ample of the primitive Church is an unlucky deviation 
from this favourite rule.) Be it so. Are they borne 
out by the sacred writings in their favourite plan of rais- 
ing an eternal wall of separation between Church and 
State ? Was not Moses at once the prophet and law 
giver of the Jews ? This people were called the people 
of God. Every thing regarding their civil and ecclesi- 
astical polity was regulated by the directions of the 
Most High. Were these two departments kept separate 
and asunder ? Was an impassable wall of separation 
raised between them ? Quite the contrary. Their 
Church and State, their Religion and their Law were 
amalgamated, were blended together, were one and in- 
divisible. Let them go up still higher if they wish, up 
to the times of Abraham and Melchisedech ; the latter 
of whom v/as a Priest of the Most High and at the same 
time King of Salem — uniting in his own proper person 
the regal and sacerdotal dignity ; a most remarkable ex- 
ample of the most intimate alliance between Church and 
State. So much for the general question as to Church 
Establishments. « 



CHAPTER XVL 

It remains for us now to examine the question in par- 
ticular — that is — in reference to the Irish Catholic 
Church. The popular cr}' touching this matter has not 
been always the same. The Irish Catholic hierarchy or 
Priesthood have been bandied about in a curious man- 
ner this last thirty years in regard to politics or State 
affairs. The multitude, practised upon by political de- 
claimers, have fallen into great extravagancies respect- 
ing Church affairs. They have prescribed, according to 
their whims or fancies or to suit the purposes of fac- 
tion, contradictory obligations on their Priesthood. It 
was universal^ maintained some years since that the 
sacei*dotal body should have nothing to do with politics, 
but should confine themselves exclusively to the exer- 
cise of their ministerial functions. This coiTesponded 



\. 



49 

to tlie system of our modern Dissenters. An outcry 
was raised at that time against tlie Pope himself, because 
he was a temporal Prince, and the act of Buonaparte in 
stripping him of his dominions, was considered quite 
conformable to the interests of religion. The Clergy, 
accordingly, at that period, kept as a body out of the 
arena of politics of every description. They could not 
take part in the politics of the State, w^hich frowned 
upon and excluded them ; nor in the politics of their own 
body or congregation, who denounced all such clerical 
intermeddling. Under these circmnstances it was wise 
in them to keep aloof and direct their attention solely 
and entirely to the immediate concerns of religion. 
Their condition, from friends and foes, was much the 
same as that of the primitive Church, in reference to the 
government or ruling powers of pagan Rome. They 
were the creatures of necessity and expediency. This 
state of things however did not long continue. The 
changehng mAultitude veered in their opinion; or they 
adopted the new doctrine of political spout ers. It was 
now held that Priests ought to attend to temporal things 
as well as eternal ; that it was incumbent on them to 
look minutely after all the concerns of the body politic, 
and second, with all their influence and energies, indivi- 
dually and collectively, the '' Patriots'' of the day, in all 
their efforts, desperate, or otherwise, to correct the er- 
rors of the State and to remedy its abuses. This con • 
sistent declaration was backed by such demonstrations 
of hostility against non-contents, and such threatening 
denunciations, that the Priests at once assmned a nev/ 
character, appeared under a two-fold capacity, and blend- 
ed together religion and party politics. They passed, 
with amazing facihty too, from one extreme to another. 
But let us proceed. The great argument used in justi- 
fication of all this was, that the Priests, notwithstanding' 
the sacredness of their order, were still citizens ; and 
therefore equally interested with others, and equally 
bound to see that bad laws were abrogated and good 
laws enacted. The wonder is that this reasoning was 
not adopted from the beginning. What does all this 
prove, in reference to the question in hands } I make 
use of an argumentum ex concessis. Does it not prove 

E 



50 

tKat the ecclesiastical power should not as a matter of 
course stand aloof from the civil : and that they possess 
a common interest and a common bond of alliance ? — 
Unless indeed the matter he absurdly qualified by saying 
that the Church should ally herself intimately to the 
factious and the turbulent, who generally disturb the 
pubhc tranquillity; and form no connexion whatever 
with the constituted authorities, who labour incessantly 
to uphold it. This de facto is the very thing they insist 
on, How then stands the case ? First of all they would 
have the Church keep aloof from all civil affairs, as an 
indispensable obligation; and then flinging this doctrine 
to the winds, they would have this same Church identify 
herself, not with civil order, but civil disorder. 



CHAPTER XVn. 

A DECLAMATORY DIGRESSION BY WAY OF RELIEF. 

It has been held by some philosophers that the savage 
is the natural state of man; and that all the civilized na- 
tions of the world emerged originally from barbarism . In 
the time of Alexander the Great, when arts and sciences, 
trade and commerce flourished among the Greeks, the 
nations of the west, Germany, Gaul, Spain, and Britain 
were nide and uncultivated. An intercourse with the 
Greeks contributed to humanize Italy ; which by degrees 
conquered and civilized the barbarians of the West. 
The Greeks themselves, originally barbarous, owed all 
their social improvements to the Eg}^tians, whose coun- 
try appeal's to have been the original seat of civihzation; 
but who, no doubt, once barbarous themselves, were re- 
claimed and cultivated by the labours of some extraordi- 
nary individuals ; perhaps by Menes, Osymandrias, Se- 
sostiis, Mercurius Trismegistus. Extraordinary' indivi- 
duals in every country, most of whom acquired their 
kncvvledge by travel and obserA'ations, assisted in this 
great work. In the New World, when it was first disco- 
vered, little more than three centuries ago, it was found 
th^^t the inhabitants were most part in a rude, savage 
state ; nothing among them but the grossest ignorance 
and barbarity. In Mexico and Peru only some progress 



51 

was made towards civilization ; although even there hu- 
man victims were constantly immolated to their Gods. 
Still, comparatively speaking, they were civilized, and 
in a state, an imperfect state to be sure, of social orga- 
nization. This change among them was brought about, 
according to their own traditions, by the appearance 
originally among them, of some few strange m^ortals, 
whom they reckoned divine ; and w^ho, having succeed- 
ed in collecting together the scattered tribes of savages, 
instructed them in husbandry and other arts of civilized 
life. The Mexicans and Peruvians revered them as De- 
ities ; resembling in this the Greeks and Romans, who 
placed among the immortal Gods, all such personages 
as had proved themselves to be the great benefactors of 
mankind. Indeed every individual of this description, 
should be considered as influenced by some divine spirit. 
If we look to the sacred writings we can never at any 
period judge vei*y favourable of the bulk of mankind. 
How stood the case previous to the Deluge in the days 
of Noah ? " The earth, saith the Lord, was filled with 
violence." They were all savages and of such an incor- 
rigible description too, that only one solitary family on 
the face of the earth was accounted worthy to escape 
the vial of destruction, which God in his wrath pom^ed 
dx)wn upon the world. What happened subsequently to 
the Deluge, when men again multipHed ? They fell at 
once into the grossest errors and extravagancies ; and 
this state of things would have become absolutely uni- 
versal but for the continued special interposition of Pro- 
vidence in favour of one family or one nation ; and even 
that same people, notwithstanding all the advantages 
they enjoyed of supernatural instruction, frequently ex- 
hibited like the rest of mankind, the obstinate wildness 
savageness, ignorance, cruelty and perversity of human 
nature. In what state was the mass of mankind w^hen 
the light of the Gospel began first to shine upon the 
world ? Ignorant and vicious and most part uncultivat- 
ed in the extreme — slaves to the greatest exti'avagancies 
and impositions both in religion and politics, even in the 
best regulated communities — mere dupes to political 
craft and religious impostm'e ; or mere machines to be 
used ad libitum by the few whom chance or successful 

E 2 



52 

contrivance might raise to command. In fact the great 
bulk of mankind were treated as mere children and the 
great point with their rnlers w^as how to keep them peace- 
able, and quiet, and attentive to the various employ- 
ments assigned them. The slaves in the Roman Em- 
pire — that is — the crowd that performed the drudgery 
and menial offices of life, and who breathed in a great 
measure at the nod of their masters, fonned a large pro- 
portion of the aggregate population. The same may be 
said of ancient Greece with all its boasted civilization ; 
and as to the commonalty in other more barbarous or 
less civiHzed countries, they were, generally speaking, 
valued as mere animals of labour, or mere instruments 
of revenge. 

The establishment of Christianity, which was the work 
of several ages, contributed to tame the ferocity of the 
masters but did not raise the slaves much higher in the 
scale of society. The Canon law, v/hich was supposed 
to be in confonnity with the Gospel, annulled the mar- 
riage of a freeman with a slave ; and even decreed that 
slavery was transmitted, like original sin, from the pa- 
rent to the offspring. Partus sequitur ventrem was a 
maxim of the Canon law. In the feudal times when by 
the successful irruption of the Goths and Vandals and 
the destruction of the Western Empire, barbarism w^as 
revived in Europe — though coupled with Christianity — 
what did society consist of but chieftains and vassals 
and serfs ; the last of whom were the mere animal mul- 
titude, that w^ere driven to labour by their high and 
mighty task-masters ? These fierce spirits were doubt- 
less rendered more mild or less ferocious by the mild 
precepts of the Gospel ; but they never entertained the 
idea of taking lessons of government from the rude and 
unreflecting multitude. Yet all were equally Christians 
and worshipped together in the same Church ; as the va- 
rious castes in Hindostan do once a year in the great 
temple of Jaghernaut. In point of religion, therefore, 
they ought all ccEteris paribus to be equally instructed 
and enlightened. Chris tianit}^ however did nothing more 
than to teach the few how to govern, and the many how 
to obey. Even in the Christian republics, Venice, Ge- 
noa, &c., &c., the mass of the community was held in no 



53 

estimation as to intellect or intelligence ; was not at all 
allowed to meddle,, either individually or collectively, in 
State affairs — as things, indeed, which they could not 
handle with safety. 

Where the light of the Gospel did not shine, that is 
the greater portion of the earth, society or the human 
race continued without any material improvement or al- 
teration. The multitude might have been occasionally 
brought into the field to hurl a tyrant from his throne. 
If they succeeded a change of masters took place, but 
little or no change in regard to themselves. They stood 
in the same relation to the new in which they had stood 
to the old. If they did not succeed their condition be- 
came inconceivably worse — being at the mercy of a vic- 
torious, exasperated tyrant. 

* Quidquid deliraut reges, plectuntur xlchivi. 

The different casts, and the Parias, the outcasts of all 
have been perpetuated in Hindostan ; and the hundreds 
of millions in China — the most improved part of the 
globe in the opinion of many — are not allowed to have 
a voice in the government of the celestial Empire. 

Mahomet, who has been reckoned a Prophet for 
above twelve centuries by a large portion of mankind, 
laid the foundation of governments that have always 
ruled with an iron rod the great mass of the people. 
All matters both as to law and religion v/ere to be judg- 
ed of by the Alcoran ; which was interpreted by the 
Mufti and the Sultan, without any reference downward. 
The scymitar did the rest. This corresponds with the 
vvords of Solomon in Ecclesiasticus. " The wisdom of a 
'' scribe conieth by his time and leisure ; and he that is 
*' less in action shall receive wisdom. With what wis- 
* ' dom shall he be furnished that holdeth the plough and 
" that glorieth in the goad ; that driveth the oxen there - 
*' with and is occupied in their labours, and his whole 
'' talk is about the offspring of bulls ? — These shall not 
*' go up into the assembly; upon the judge's seat they 
'* shall not sit and the ordinance of judgment they shall 
** not understand." From all this it appears that nei- 

* Whatever were the follies of the Chiefs the multitude Avere 
the sufferers. 

E 3 



54 

ther among Pagans, or Ckristians, or Jews, or Maho- 
metans, or the followers of Confucius, or the Disciples 
of Budhoo have the multitude been considered of any 
importance or authorit}^ in the body poUtic. 

How stands the case at present in this respect ? We 
have only to look to Christendom. Tliroughout the 
rest of the world things remain in statu quo — all power 
and authorit}^ still and likely to continue in the hands of 
the few ; while the multitude remains rude, grovehng, 
mean, and obsequious. But how is the case through- 
out Christendom, which is supposed to contain the most 
enlightened portion of the human race ? How is it with 
respect to Russia — that Empire which has made the 
most rapid progress towards permanent greatness of any 
recorded in histoiy ? In what light are tillers of the 
ground, feeders of cattle, handycraftmen viewed in re- 
ference to society in that great section of the globe ? 
Are they considered any authority in politics, in legisla- 
tion, in jurispradence, in the great art of promoting the 
interests of the State internally and externally ? No- 
thing at all of the kind. The labourinc^ multitude are 
obhged to confine themselves to their own humble de- 
partment. " The ploughma.n gives his mind to turn up 
*' the fiuTOws, and the keeper of cattle gives the kine 
*' fodder. Eveiy craft- man and work-master laboureth 
" night and day : he who maketh graven seals and va- 
" rieth the figm-e, gives his mind to the resemblance of 
*' the pictiii*e, and by his attention perfects the work. 
*' The smith sitting by the am.il acts in like manner. 
'' The vapour of the fii'e wasteth his fiesh and he con- 
" tends with the heat of the fui^nace. The noise of the 
'* hammer is always in his ears, and his eye is upon the 
*' pattern of what he is making. In like manner the 
" potter sitteth at his w^ork turning the w^heel about with 
" his feet: he fashioneth the clay with his ann and bow- 
*' eth dow-n his strength before his feet : he giveth his 
'' mind to finish the glazing and his watching to make 
** clean the furnace. YVithout these a city is not built: 
** but they do not go up into the assembly nor sit upon 
" the seat of judgment."* How is it in Austria where 

* Eccles. 



55 

the taxes are very light and the people very happy ! 
Just as it is in Russia — the multitude kept solely and 
exclusively to the all-important business of producing 
the necessaries, and comforts, and luxuries of life — 
leaving the business of legislation to the wealthy, the 
learned, and the wise — In short the mass of the people 
is viewed much in the same light every where. Neither 
France nor England is properly speaking an exception. 
The number of electors that send deputies to the French 
Cham^ber bears but a miserable proportion to the im- 
mense population of France. The mass of the French 
people was once invested with legislative power or as- 
sumed it, and the world is but too well acquainted with 
the sanguiiiaiy consequences. This scene has been acted 
over and over, and has always terminated in a military 
despotism — a species of government that is ever reared 
upon the calamitous foundation of massacre and destrac- 
tion. Even in the British Empire how is the case ? 
Look at the entire of her population at home and abroad 
— in her Colonies, in America, in the West Indies, in 
Hindostan. Upwards of one hundred and fifty millions 
of human beings acknowledge her supremacy. VsTiat 
share has the great bulk of this enonnous mass in the 
great business of legislation and rule ? Are we to take 
into account merely the population of these Islands ? 
Forbid it radicalism. Ai'e we to make no account of the 
Africans vrhom we are emancipating; nor of the Asia- 
tics whom we are labouring to Christianize ? Are they 
not all human beings ; and therefore entitled to be 
thronged all-together indiscriminately into the same 
huge aggregate collection ? And yet not the hundred 
and fiftieth part of this population have any thing to do 
with public affairs . The huge multitude, like as hap- 
pens under other Sovereignties, are employed, in the 
business of life in their own proper sphere, in the la- 
bours of the field or the labours of the workshop, on the 
land and on the water. The whole work of legislation 
or the public concern, both proximately and remotely, 
lies in the hands of a few. 

But let us make an unnecessary concession ; let the 
question - be narrowed ; let us confine ourselves to the 
popidation of the three kingdoms ; which may b« called 



56 

the dominant population of the Empire. This popula- 
tion amounts to over twenty millions. How many of 
this number are engaged in regulating the affaii's of the 
community ? Some hundi'eds are engaged in the work 
of legislation ; who are appointed or elected occasionally 
for that purpose by some thousands or say some hun- 
dreds of thousands. ^Miat becomes of all the millions } 
What becomes of the People ? ^Miat becomes of the 
vulgar ? What part is left for them to enact ? The re- 
ply is ob^-ious enough — the sensible and industrious 
portion to attend to the labour of their calhng ; and the 
foolish and the idle to swell the senseless crowd at par- 
ty meetings, 

To hiss and hoot, 

To clap and shout, 

'EoTit trifling things to raise a pother, 

And claw and curry one another. 

But what is meant by the pompous expression, '' the 
sovereign people ?" ^Miat is the extent of this tenii, 
" people ?" Is it to be understood in an enlarged or in 
^a conlined sense ? Does it include persons of all castes, 
colom's, and conditions .'^ Blacks and Whites ; Greeks 
and barbarians ? Are they willing to concede this pri- 
vilege of legislative dehberation and control to all with- 
out distinction ; and allow Lascars and Pigmies, and 
Hottentots, and Cafi'es, and Mandingoes, and Ashan- 
tees, and Caribs, and Esquimaux, and Akansaws to take 
their seats with om* sage senators, in the great council 
of the Nation ? But if they do not go thus far, if like 
the Anglo Americans, they refuse this kind of associa- 
tion with the sable part of mankind, what are they after 
all, but mere monopohsts or oligarchs ; exclusionists 
agreeing fully with their adversaries as to principle, and 
disputing with them merely on the question of numbers: 
oi plus and minus, of addition and subti'action ? 

• exclairas all men have equal rights, 



The Blacks, of course, are levelled \Yith the Whites ; 
The Arahs wild, that scour the thirsty plain, 
And seek in spoil and plunder lawful gain ; 
The Cherokees, Akansaws, and Chicksaws, 
The dog-ribbed Indians and the Esquiinax ; 
.Wretches like these be p'aced upon our level, 
rd sooner see them heei'illong to the D— — 1. 



57 

Is it a matter of course ; or does it arise from the na- 
ture of things, that the multitude is to be kept under 
restraint or governed in this manner ? This is a serious 
question. The gifts of nature as well as of fortune are 
of unequal distribution. This doubtless is the disposi- 
tion of Providence, as vrell as the effect of secondary 
causes. It appears that grace is meted out in a similar 
manner — to some much is given, to others Httle, and to 
more none at all. Thus it is that there is a correspon- 
dence between the visible and the in\'isible order of 
things. Hence v\'e find in the world, dulness and pene- 
ti*ation, poverty and riches, vice and virtue : the former 
however infinitely the more predominant. The men of 
genius are, comparatively speaking, extremely few ; the 
wealthy, what a scant}- fiock do they constitute I but the 
poor, how immense the multitude ! ! virtue is a rare 
plant, but vice springs up in all quarters. Compare na- 
tions together. See the extreme inferiority^ of some, of 
the far greater number. Look to the Continent of Afri- 
ca, where in many parts the human race seems near akin 
to the brute creation ; and in general, if we except the 
coast of the Mediteranean and some few other spots on 
the shore of the Atlantic, the light of hum.an reason and 
the fire of human genius is almost extinguished. Are 
the people of this quarter of the globe fitted by nature 
for command ; or do they not appear to be marked out by 
nature to be placed under the control and management 
of others? No doubt a portion, a considerable portion of 
Africa has seen its vicissitudes of barbarism and civili- 
zation. It boasted of Eg}i3t and its 2000 cities ; and 
of the kingdom of Ethiopia, which was celebrated in the 
days of Solomon ; and of the Carthaginian republic, 
which in the days of Hannibal had well nigh given laws 
to Europe ; and of the kingdoms of Mauritania and Nu- 
midia, famous in the time of the early Romans. At a 
subsequent period the colonies from Italy and Greece, 
which succeeded the downfall of the ancient kingdoms 
and repubhcs, and stretched fi'om Eg}'pt to the pillars of 
Hercules, kept barbarism still at a distance and prepared 
the way for the introduction of Christianity ; which here 
flourished for several centuries ; so much so that nor* 



58 

thern Africa could boast at one period of hundreds of 
Christian Bishops, and a due proportion of saints and 
ecclesiastical writers. But the tide of Islamism which 
poured in upon the country, quickly extinguished the 
light of the Gospel, without however extinguishing Afri-- 
can power or African civilization : on the contrary eve- 
ry thing seemed to be invigorated and improved, by the 
transition to the religion of Mahomet. Africa poured 
once more into Europe her swarms of soldiers and arti- 
zans. Spain received for centuries her yoke and her im- 
provements, 'till at length the tide of affairs turning, her 
sons were compelled after multiplied scenes of blood, to 
recross the Mediteranean and return to their ancient 
home ; where, having finally sunk into inactivity, dege- 
neracy and barbarism, nothing remains but the tradition- 
ary tales of their former grandeur and magnificence. 
Sic transit gloria mundi. Will they ever again enact a 
mighty part on the theatre of the world } — In arts and 
sciences, in religion and politics ? And if so how is such 
a resuscitation to be brought about ? Is it possible that 
the establishment of the French at Algiers may ultimate- 
ly lead to its accomplishment ! However the thing may 
be, it cannot be done but either by letting in some ex- 
ternal light upon their darkness, or by the unforeseen 
exertions of some extraordinary individuals, who may at 
a future period arise among themselves and diffuse once 
more through those barbarous regions, the blessings of 
civilized life. 

If we except China and perhaps a few other Asiatic 
Nations, are not the people of that great section of the 
globe in a state of degeneracy and barbarism — some in 
lie extreme ? — Turks, Tartars, Idolaters — abject slaves 
to tyranny and superstition and held in the utmost con- 
tempt by Europeans ; who themselves should be cau- 
tious in boasting of their mighty superiority. Look at 
the Aborigines of Van Diemen s Land, of Australia ? 
and at the savages on the western coast of America— 
the people about Nootka Sound — cannibals devouring 
one another. What are these but wild savage animals 
having nothing about them but the shape of man to en- 
title them to the honour of being numbered among the 



59 

liaman species ? Still amid all this diversity and in- 
equality, is not the human race destined for social 
life ? Is it not to be set in order and ruled and govern- 
ed and if possible made happy ? And then in whose 
hands is this great business to be lodged ? Who are tx) 
execute this mighty task ? Is darkness to produce 
light, anarchy, order, degeneracy, improvement, and bar- 
barism civilization? No ; this is not the course of things ; 
this is not the order of events. Light must expel dark- 
ness, order anarchy, improvement degeneracy, and civi- 
lization barbarism. The Schoolmaster, the Sage, the 
Philosopher must do the great vi^ork ; and the enlightened 
few must form, must govern, must bridle the ignorant 
and unruly multitude. 

Look to the most enlightened Nations and see how 
deficient is the mass of the people in regard to the true 
knowledge of things and of the common interest. The 
most extravagant ideas are every where entertained as 
to religion and politics and the social duties. It is a 
prevailing notion in this country that Priests possess the 
most extraordinary powers imaginable, that the visible 
and invisible world is under their control; that they can 
at their will and pleasure make sick or make well; give 
prosperity or adversity, damnation or salvation : and yet 
this extreme credulity of the vulgar does not prevent 
them — so much are they under the control of their 
passions — ^from setting themselves occasionally in op- 
position to these same all-powerful personages, and 
braving the fatal consequences of their destructive 
wrath. They hold the strangest opinions regarding de- 
parted souls. They fancy the huntsman, the jockey, the 
sporting squire, will be riding their favourite horses in 
the other world ; and they are persuaded that when any 
particular mishap befalls themselves, it is done through 
the mahcious intervention of some deceased persons — 
their enemies. They in general set more value on tri- 
vial observances than on the weighty points of the law. 
They are extremely addicted to lying, to fraud and cir- 
cumvention. Nothing can persuade them but that they 
ought to hate and extenninate if in their power, all such 
as differ from them in religion. 



60 

* Inde furor vulgo quod numina vicinorum 
Odit uterque locus, quum solos credit habendoa 
Esse Deos quos ipse colat. Juv. Sat. 15. 

It gives tliem great offence to see their Priest on friend- 
ly terms with Protestants ; and such Priests as stand in 
this sort of relationship are, by way of reproach deno- 
minated Protestant Priests. They beheve in ghosts, 
fairies, hobgobhns ; give credit to dreams and fortune 
tellers ; practice superstitious observances without num- 
ber — spells, charms, and incantations. In short they 
are mere children in all these matters. They are inca- 
pable of judging what may be serviceable to them or 
otherwise touching laws and regulations. What extra- 
vagant ideas do not the Trades' Unions and Labourers 
entertain .^ They account machinery a National calami- 
ty — that which is the great source of production and 
wealth. They fancy they should be the sole valuers of 
their own labour ; that they should dictate to their em- 
ployers ; and they think themselves warranted in mur- 
dering any individual or individuals who ma^/ venture to 
think and act differently. All this too they imagine is 
for the good of trade and of society. In the country the 
lower orders m^ake no scruple whatever in combining 
against law and order, and massacreing, if they can, ail 
those who do not join in their combinations. In their 
late anti-tithe war they set no more value on the life of 
a fellow- creature than on the life of the most worthless 
brute ; and many who suffered the extreme penalty of 
the law" for m^urders of the most revolting description, 
could with great difficulty be brought to acknowledge 
the justice of their sentence. They considered it no 
breach of God's commandment to murder a tithe- owner, 
or a tithe-receiver, or a tithe -collector, or a tithe-valua- 
tor, or a tithe-process-server, or even any one that would 
not assist them in the great and good work of extin- 
guishing tithes altogether. 

They are divided also among themselves into hostile 
factions or parties ; the Mahoneys against the Hurleys 

* The furious crowd would hurry to the D 1 

Ail such as do not at their altars kneel. 
They fancy to themselves all grace is giv'n, 
And make complete monopoly of Heav'n. 



61 

and the Hurleys against the Mahone^vs. They *fight 
pitched battles against one another with deadly weapons 
-at fairs and markets and patterns and goals ; and even 
on Sundays and H ohdays — ^taking good care first of all 
to hear Mass. They scarcely ever meet together at 
christenings or weddings or at the ale-house that a battle 
does not take place ; when blood and bruises and broken 
bones terminate the barbarous scene. They resemble 
the savage Thracians of old. 

* Scypbis in usnm letitise natis pugnare Thracum est. 

And O'Rourk's noble feast as given by Swift is still as 
to its termination, frequently imitated in this civilised 
country. "VsHiiskey is all their dehght. The use or 
abuse of whiskey helps to impoverish the farmer and to 
pauperize the tradesman. Such Artizans as have em- 
plo}Tnent and tolerable wages — smiths, coachmakers, 
carpenters, masons, hatters — generally spend the Sun- 
days in public houses, and also Mondays. Some timg 
on Tuesday the^/ generally resume their employments. 
Labourers would act a similar part if they had the means 
to do so. Swallowing whiskey and sw^allowing it to ex- 
cess is their summmn borami ; hke as eating opium is 
wuth the common Turks. There is nothing they delight 
in more than to hear of conspiracies, seditions, tumults, 
wars, and the shedding of blood. This has been always 
and in all places characteristic of the commonalty. 

-f Pugnaset exactos tyrannos 
Dens urn humeris bibit aure 
Volgus. 

Nothing but the dread of the law and the fear of pu- 
.nishment bridles their fury, prevents them from turning 
the whole community topsy turvy, and reducing to one 
frightful chaos aU the elements of societ}^ How admi- 
.rably fitted this class of persons is to be guides and in- 
iBtinctors and superintendents in the great art of govern- 
ing Kingdoms and Empires; and yet this is the identical 
class that constitutes the main portion of that body, 
pompously called the '* people." 

* Like the wild sons of Thrace in days of yore, 
They end their feasts in battle and uproar. — Hor. 

t Nothing so much delights the multitude, 
As horrid tales of battles, and of blood — Hor. 

F 



62 

Let us examine what is exactly meant by this " term" 
as apphcable to Ireland. To ascertain this point the 
best mode of proceeding is by abstraction or drawing 
off. What is left behind, or the remainder will be the 
thing sought. Properly speaking, by the term " People" 
as applied to a nation or a country is meant the commu- 
nity at large, or all the inhabitants without distinction ; 
who, indeed may be divided into the higher orders and 
the lower orders, the latter generally denominated the 
common people. But this explication will not do here. 
In the first place we must put the great ones or the 
aristocracy aside altogether, as if they had nothing in 
common with those of inferior rank, possessed no inter- 
est in the commonwealth, and should have no share in 
its management. The Protestants generally speaking, 
high and low, must be abstracted and set apart as form- 
ing no portion of the Irish people. The same is to be 
said of all such as hold official situations ; who belong 
to the army, the navy, the church, the law, in part, and 
the revenue. Considerable deductions must also be 
made from the middle ranks ; the greater part of whom 
must dislike dangerous experiments in politics and reh- 
gion, and be desirous of peace ; addicted as they are to 
business — to trade, to commerce, to manufacture, to 
agriculture ; and who consider themselves greatly marred 
in their pursuits or avocations, by the perpetual din and 
damour of pragmatical politicians. When these absent 
themselves from repeal and other meetings, they subject 
themselves to this dangerous reproach *' you do not go 
with the people." Add them therefore to the aristocra- 
cy and to the Protestants. How many have been moved 
out of their usual track by terror, or actuated by policy ? 
How many have acted a double part in the bustling poli- 
tics of the day ? — Have done so for their own particular 
benefit, or because they dreaded the consequences of 
keeping aloof from the existing combination. The se- 
cession of these would still swell the ranks of the ex- 
terns and diminish the number of the Sovereign People ; 
to whom indeed they are attached merely per accidens. 
May we not still go a little further in this delicate work 
of abstraction ? May we net venture to make a selec- 
tion, to cull and pick even from the very multitude, even 
from the very ''people"? — From the handicraftmen. 



63 

from the farmers, from 'the labourers. Have they ail 
with one mind rushed into this arena of poKtics and con-- 
federated to remodel or to upset in spite of every oppo- 
sition, the laws and institutions of the Empire ? A great 
many of these poor people never bestow a thought on 
such matters. Many, particularly among the comfort- 
able farmers are only sorry that they were dragged upon 
tlie public stage, and forced to mingle among the turbu- 
lent — many who if left to themselves would have at- 
tended to nothing but their own private affairs. They 
joined the crowd under the influence of terror. They 
had fears for their lives and properties, for their hag- 
garts and their dwelling houses. Let us abstract this 
class also and send them to the right about. Who then 
are the people ; or those who would arrogate to them- 
selves the paramount rights of legislation — and who 
would legislate too in a very summary manner — desig- 
nate, sentence and execute ? A noisy, daring, despe- 
rate, organized faction, numerous to be sure, and to be 
found in all quarters ; employed with singular dexterity 
by skilful leaders to bring into play the mass of the com- 
mon people : which task is executed at all hazards — at 
the expence of justice and social order ; for to effect 
their purpose they make no scruple to set at defiance all 
laws, human and divine, leaving no man at liberty to de- 
cide for himself, nor any alternative to the timid and 
peaceable, but either to enlist under their banners, or be 
visited by their vengeance. In short a faction, the 
common disturbers of the public repose and foes to the 
wealth, industry, intelligence and virtue of the country 
— a mere section of a sect, enemies to the Protestant po- 
pulation, to the aristocratic population, Protestant and 
Catholic, and to the peaceable and well-disposed among 
all classes of the community. 

Much is said about public opinion. The terms, '' pub- 
lic opinion'' and " people" are used with equal impro- 
priety in the political slang of the day. But let us be 
particular. How is the expression of pubhc opinion* as 
it is called, procured ; or what is it in reality ? A pa- 
rish meeting is called, say in the parish Chapel, to pe- 
tition Parliam.ent for a repeal of the Legislative Union. 
Some forty or fifty persons assemble ; unless the meet- 
ing be called on Sundavs, immediatelv after pubhc pray- 
' f2 



64 

ers ; when want of other employment, the convenience 
of attendance or curiosity might cause a larger assem- 
blage. The meetings in the Country Prishes have been 
always most part very thinly attended even on Sundays.. 
But to the matter in question. Eveiy m.eeting is graced 
by the presence of two or three well-trained hackneved 
orators — individuals generally neither of means nor cha- 
racter, but glib of tongue, and abounding in brass. 
These active gentlemen concoct every thing, propose 
every thing, dictate every thing, carry every thing, and 
conclude every thing. No one indeed would have the 
hardihood to oppose them. 

The rustics- hear, and gaze, and say '' amen/* 

The resolutions and petitions are signed, sealed, and' 
delivered, and so the business is done. The opinion 
of the itinerant orators is the opinion of the persons 
assembled, by chance or otherwise ; and the opinion 
of these is the opinion of the parish at large. Such 
is a sample of the scenes generally acted upon these 
occasions : and as is the sample, so is the sack, ah uno 
disce omnes. Even in the cities at the different parish 
meetings, we find the same batch of orators constantly 
figuring away ; and always making sure of a competent 
number of uproarious backers, to drown all opposition. 
Thus the audience, whether consisting of a few simple 
folk in the country, or a multitude of the working class- 
es in the city, give indeed no opinion of their ovvm, but 
merely a sort of indefinable assent to what is propound- 
ed under circumstances that leave them no other alter- 
native. Tlie generahty of those who give their hearty 
assent on these occasions, have nothing but a vague 
idea that what is proposed may be for their good, with- 
out knowing any thing of the why or the wherefore. 
What is their opinion, therefore, if opinion it is to be 
called! It is tlie opinion of a few fiippant, political. 
Missionaries, who are employed industriously in the ha- 
zardous work of political agitation; which communica- 
ted and recommended to a portion of the ignorant peo- 
ple got together by design — the great body keeping 
aloof — and in some sort of way reflected back upon the 
busy propounders, is bandied about and lauded and pror 
claimed as the genuine^, deliberate opinion and judgment 



. 65 

of the people at large. In a word these gentlemen-ma-^ 
nagers contrive to wrap up their own bantling in the 
swaddling clothes of the public, and then characterize 
the clandestine brat, as the offspring of the community. 

But to be quite serious on the business, is the legis- 
latui'e, in deciding on questions affecting the interests 
of the Empire, to do nothing but count heads at popu- 
lar assemblies ? The sections of Paris took upon them 
for a considerable time to dictate to the revolutionary 
governments in France and were constantly producing 
such derangemxcnt and mischief that it was found neces- 
sary at last to slaughter some thousands of the unfortu- 
nate people to put a stop to so serious an evil. Not the 
majorit}^ or the bulk of the community but some select 
persons — a few comparatively speaking- — are fit to be 
entrusted v/ith the m^anagement or superintendence of 
public affairs. But the mrdtitude ma^v be very competent 
of themselves to foiTn a just estimate of individual char- 
acter and to know who is a good man, a wise man, an 
independent man; a man of energy, activity and expe- 
rience ; and who therefore ought to be associated in the 
great and important work of national legislation. The 
lofty and the humble equally knew the talents and the 
worth of Henry Grattan, and vfere satisfied that he was 
in his proper place, when he sat in the great council of 
the nation. But would it have been right to have such 
talents and such worth and such acquirements neutral- 
ized and the great man himself rendered a sort of au- 
tomaton by the absurd dictation of popular decisions, 
founded not on learning, or wisdom, or integiity, but 
mainly on the numerical superiority of an unlettered and 
blinded multitude ! 

No doubt the wisdom of the community is not con- 
fined within the walls of Parliament. On the contrary 
there might be members of that house neither learned 
nor wise ; and it would be passing strange if there was 
not a superabundance of learning and every other sena- 
torial quahfication unconnected vrith the Chapel of St. 
Stephen. If persons duly quahfied vrere to assemble 
and dehberate, without being overawed by the turbu- 
lent and unruly, brought together designedly for that 
purpose, the most salutary measures may be propound- 
ed and recommended ; suggestions of the wisest descrip-' 
F 3 



66 

tion may be made to Parliament, aad substantial bene- 
fits to the empire at large, might be the happy result. 
But if ignorance be jumbled together with learning, folly 
with wisdom, stupidity with talent, inexperience with a 
knowledge of the world, grossness with refinement, and 
barbarism with civilization ; and if, in addition, all the 
former be the dominant ingredients in the composition of 
the mass, what can be expected from a coUision so dis- 
cordant and so unequal, but the prostration of good, and 
the triumph of evil ? These jarring elements can never 
be brought to coalesce, and should not be brought into 
colhsion. Grant the lower orders, or the people, as they 
are called, their rights — good laws : and let them enjoy 
the privilege they possess, of assisting in the election of 
able and honest legislators ; but let them be restrained 
within the limits of then* own department y and not fan- 
cy, through any silly notions of their own political con- 
sequence, imbibed from the slang of political spouters, 
that it is their grand province to read lectures on legis- 
lation, to dictate to Parliament, to control the civil au- 
thorities ; as if, indeed reversing the order of things, 
they constituted in themselves, the supreme power of 
the State ; not to fancy, in a word, that they differ much 
in regard to society or the body politic, from their sires 
and grandsires, or from those in other countries, who 
are similarly conditioned — namely — destined as a great 
class or section of the community, to fulfil the sentence 
pronounced on man at the fall of Adam ; to earn their 
bread by the sweat of their brows, to be ever employed 
in the labours of the body, to ]>e the di'udges and support 
of the higher ranks, and to be, as a matter of course, 
ever considered the humblest, the vv^orst educated, and 
the least influential portion of manldnd. 

We speak only of the body or class, which as such, 
in the present order of things must be permanent ; 
not of individuals, who may rise and are constantly ri- 
sing above their original level — to be replaced perhaps 
by degenerate outcasts or unfortune individuals from the 
higher ranks of society. This exchange of condition — 
the joint result of human imbecility and human virtue — 
is constantly and extensively in operation. It is indeed 
a law of nature, it must needs be that the poor labouring 
classes will constitute the great bulk of mankind. But 



67 

no individual is bound down by this stern laV/ of neces- 
sity. The individual is free ; he may rise from the 
muck-hill and be seated among the princes of the peo- 
ple ; whilst, on the other hand, the high and mighty 
may, through misfortune or through crime, be obliged 
to lay aside their honors, to descend from their pedes- 
tals, and to hide themselves among the ignoble multi- 
tude. These vicissitudes, which in no wise affect the 
fixed orders and classes of society, should afford mat- 
ter of serious reflection to the humblest individuals, and 
teach them that the lot of the poor is not absolutely 
wretched, nor that of the great absolutely fortunate ; 
that the condition of neither is fixed or permanent ; but 
that themselves or their children, or their grand chil- 
dren, in the course of time, may exchange places, and 
thus, w^eighing and com.paring aE things, be ultimately 
upon the sam.e envied level of moral and physical equa- 
lity. The rich mian has his turn now, the poor man's 
turn is to come, 

Nunc £gcr umbreni snb nomine, nuper cfellii, 
Dictu.% ciat nulli proprius, sed cedit in usum, 
Nune mihi nune aliis.— Hok.* 

This is the true picture of hmnan affairs, very different 
Indeed from that pourtrayed by wild theorists or design- 
ing dem^agogues ; who, insulting the simplicity of the 
poor and their state of dependence, invest them with the 
robes of pretended majesty, clothe them with imaginary 
purple and fine linen ; and raising them, by the lever of 
sophistry, from their humble sphere above thrones, do- 
miinations and powers, kneel down in mock homage and 
hail them *' the sovereign people.'' 

But if the plebeian body are to be the governors of 
the world, let them first of ail be duly prepared for the 
execution of so great a task. For the art of governing 
is not the play of children : aj^s arthnn est regimen natio- 
num. Let them be divested of their childishness, for 
they are yet in their infancy ; let them be properly edu- 
cated and imibibe the true principles of religion and mo- 
rality ; rid them of bigotry, prejudices, and sectarian ha- 

* O'Brien's farm O'Fally's was of ls.te, 
All human things are in this transient state ; 
We boast to-day of houses and of lands, 
Which soon, too scon will pass to other hands. 



68 

trecl ; teach them to love tlieir neighbour as tli em selves 
and to view all classes and divisions vfith an eeraal eye 
of charit}^ ; ineiilcute on their minds a hatred of vice and 
a love of virtue — a love of truth, of justice and fair deal- 
ing. Divest them of their weakness and their credulity; 
and strengthen their minds to withstand the baneful 
arts of superstition and imposture. Banish from them 
lawlessness, savageness, cruelty, and blood-thirstiness, 
and make them civil, orderly, peaceable and humane. 
In a word, fashion them, form them, renew them, make 
them riitional beings, not only in appearance but in re- 
ality : do this and let your theory be put in practice, 
give them control over the government, and let them 
be denommated " the sovereign people." And now 
v/isliing heartily for the return of these Saturnian timeS;, 
v/e return to our original very important subject. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Radicals or noisy politicians of the day, who ap~ 
pear hostile to the union betvfeen Church and State, 
and to every union except combination among them- 
selves, w^oald fain take the Catholic Church in Ireland 
completely into their holy keeping, ha.ve the Priesthood 
to act or not to act, take this position or that position 
according to therr good v/ill and pleasure ; would have 
them at one time to take no part in politics and then, 
upon reconsidering the mcttter, to become the most ac- 
tive and efficient political agitators. And the respective 
reasons assigned for these two contradictory systems are 
such as would warrant the permanency of both. They 
appear indeed to have got the full control over the Irish 
Catholic Church ; and they accordingly exercise a des- 
potism over it, such as it could hardly be supposed sub- 
ject to, if it were in the closest alliance with the State. 
They have repeatedly overav^ed the Bishops within these 
last thirty years — that is — during the period that they 
themselves, have been figuring away in the body politic. 
They have scared them from their position respecting 
clerical pensions, and respecting the royal Veto ; have 
made them look on with fear and trembling, at the pro- 
fanation of their Chapels, Avhich have been turned into 



69 

political club-hpuses ; and the profanation of their Cler- 
gy, who have been used as political demagogues. Let 
the Bishops speak out, and declare how they have writh- 
ed this thirty years past under the shackles of political 
agitation, and lamented, in secret, the fallen state of 
their order in this Country. 

At the tim.e of the Legislative Union, when the policy 
of Pitt and Castlereagh contemplated Catholic Eman- 
cipation, the Bishops, after due dehberation of course, 
declared their w^ilHngness to accept of a State provision 
for themselves and their Clergy. This resolution was 
generally acquiesced in. If Mr. Pitt's advice had been 
followed, if the proposed measm'e of Emancipation had 
then taken place, all matters would have been quietly 
adjusted at the tiuie ; the succession of bloody scenes 
which has occurred since, would have been unknown, 
and unhappy Ireland would not be what she is at the 
present day. Sed Diis aliter visum. Dr. T]b.oy of Dub- 
lin, Dr. Plunket of Meath, and Dr. Moylan of Cork, 
who were the leading Bishops of the time, gave their 
full consep_t to that proposed measure of alliance be- 
tween Church and State. These good m.en laboured to 
promote National union, harm^ony, and peace. After the 
lapse of some years, when a few political leaders had ob- 
tained an ascendancy over the multitude, an alternative 
or something equal to an alternative, was proposed to 
the hierarchy— either to abjure eveiy idea of alliance 
vvitb the ruling powers, or to be deserted by their con- 
gregations. Dr. Troy suffered actual persecution at 
the time. His congregation quitted his Chapel more 
than once, when, on different occasions, he appeared at 
his altar to officiate. He was held up as a Castle hack, 
a slave to Government, and a traitor to the people. 
This was done of course, for a particular purpose. The 
episcopal body shewed no firmness ; they were borne 
away, or they suffered themselves to be borne away by the 
popular current, and they published a declaration differ- 
ent from the resolution approved of at the period of the 
Union. Their decision however on this occasion, left 
th€ merits of the question untouched ; it was founded 
merely on the principle of expediency. But they did 
not stop here. Hurried away by untoward circumstan- 
ces, by the temper of the times, by popular extra\^gan" 



70 

cies and frerxzy, that which at first they pi'onouced mere- 
ly inexpedient, they now denounced as in its nature *' in- 
jurious to, and subversive of the Cathohc ReHgion in 
Ireland." This was to pass from one extreme to ano- 
ther, upon a subject that did not w^arrant so extrava- 
gant a transition. But the decision was not the calm 
result of unawed deliberation, but a cowardly peace-of- 
fering, for the moment, ta a dominant faction. 

Tlie pohtical leaders had now obtained a complete 
triumph over the episcopal body ; who, indeed, lay in 
chains prostrate at their feet. The question of clerical 
pensions did not hovrever rest here. It was renewed, 
and agitated, and strange to tell, the veiy men who 
brow-beat the Bishops on the subject, and denounced 
tliem very deliberately and earnestly, recommended the 
measui'e; and pointed out, hke wise statesmen, the great 
advantages that would accrue to the State in case of its 
adoption— that is if the Priests were connected with the 
government by a golden link. This shews, if we sup- 
pose any tiling hke consistency in them, that they 
viewed the matter from the beginning much in the same 
light with the Bishops ; but perhaps they wished the 
thing to come from themselves — a practice quite com- 
mon with such as are desirous of enacting a great part 
on the theatre of the world. The episcopal body never 
contemplated the acceptance of a State provision but in 
conjunction with a Cathohc relief bill ; and it was as an 
accompaniment to this boon that our domineering poHti- 
dans marked it with the seal of their approbation. They 
forgot all at once their outcries against clerical pensions 
and the adulterous connection between Chm'ch and 
State, and their threatening dictation to the hierai'chy 
on the subject, and their abuse of Quarantotti — that 
" provoking specimen of Italian audacity" — and their 
railing at the Roman Chanceiy for having recommend- 
ed union and peace : in a word, flinging shame and 
reasoning and consistency to the winds, they unblush- 
ingly recommended a measure, which, with an utter 
disregard for the opinions, and feehngs, and independ- 
ence of the clerical body, they had held up for a series of 
years, to the wdd reprobation of the community. The 
expected relief bill did not however become law, and the 
projected unholy alliance was put again in abeyance. 



71 



CHAPTER XIX, 

A new era has arived ; the rehef bill and other bills 
of a similar description have passed ; civil disabilities 
on the score of rehgion have been removed, and the go- 
vernment is no longer Protestant or Sectarian. Under 
these auspicious circumstances, if it be proposed tx) make 
a State provision for the Irish Catholic Clergy, ought 
any impediment be thrown in the way of its acceptance ? 
This is the question to be considered. Roman Cathohcs 
as such, should at least be mute as to the general ques- 
tion. Church Establishments in fact, make part and 
parcel of the Catholic Religion. This state of legalized 
Christianity is interwoven with the Canons and disci- 
pHne of the Church, and dates its existence from ths 
very period when the dark night of religious persecution 
had disappeared, and the bright day of religious triumph 
began to gladden the hearts of the faithful. Constan- 
tine the Great — the first Christian Emperor — is gene* 
rally supposed also to have taken the lead in the endow- 
ment of Churches, and rendering them independent of 
voluntary oblations. However that may have been, 
there is no doubt that Church property continued to ac- 
cumulate from the time that Christianity mounted the 
throne of the Caesars. The Bishop of Rome acquired 
the patrimony of St. Peter, and became a temporal 
Prince — ^blending together, in his own person, the two- 
fold character of chief Pontiff and supreme Magistrate ; 
in which capacity he has administered the affairs of reh- 
gion these fifteen centuries ; and still continues and is 
likehv^ to continue to exhibit himself in the same compli- 
cated yet steady attitude. In conformity with the ex- 
ample of the Sovereign Pontiff, a secure provision was 
every w^here established for the Bishops and the inferior 
Clergy. Tithes in imitation of the Synagogue and the 
provisions of the Levitical Law, began to be paid or le- 
vied at an early period. At the Council of Mascon held 
in 585, the fifth Canon declares *' that the Divine Law 
commanded the payment of tithes to the Clerg}% and 
that the Christians had then for a considerable time ob- 
serve ed this precept ; they further ordained that the cus- 
tom should be continued." Charles the Great — the 
restorer of the western Empire and a religious Prince — 



72 

enacted in iiis Capitalarie-s, that tithes should be paid t-^ 
the Church. In all the Councils of the time and after- 
ward.-, we find reflations or Canons on the^ subject of 
Church property — regarding its distribution or against 
its alienation. The Council of Trent — the last general 
Council — declares that " tithes are due to God or to re- 
ligion, and that it is sacrilegious to withold them." And 
one of the six precepts of the Church ecmmands ths 
faithful ** to pay tithes to their pastors.'' lliis was al- 
ways the wording of the precept even in this country 
until lately ; when for reasons that may be easily con- 
jectured, it was thought proper to alter the ancient lan- 
guage of the Church, and to give a novel form to the 
precept. The new wording however, is nothing but a 
pharaphrase upon the old ; and has been framed no 
doubt to suit the peculiar circumstances of the limes ; 
for besides that the precept, as it stands on the Church 
statute book, has been a dead letter in this country as to 
the Roman Catholic hierai-ehy ; the very name of tithes 
now sounds abominable in the ears of their congrega- 
tions. All this, by the bye, is not very reconcileable 
with the permanence and unit}- of Church law ; besides 
that it places an act of a general Council or of Councils 
far beneath an act of Parhament : which indeed may be 
rerised and altered, and amended, but not by any autho- 
rity inferior to that by which it first became law. But 
let us not stray from our subject. Look at the Catho- 
lic Rehgion at the present day, wherever it is estabhshed 
or is the religion of the people. Look at Italy the great 
centre of Cathohc unity ; look to Austria, to Germany, 
to France, to Spain, to Portugal ; go to the New World, 
to North and South America, a State provision is every 
where secured under one shape or the other for the 
Priesthood. Ireland is an exception. But was it al- 
ways so ? or is not this peculiarity the result of untow- 
ard circumstances ? How did the case stand previous 
to the Reformation ? Who then received the tithes of 
the c-Gvn and of the cattle ; the tithe of tillage and the 
tithe of agistment ? Tlie Irish Catholic Clerg\' : and 
they received also the tithes that are now called impro- 
pi-iate. The Protestant Church system is nothing but 
a continuation of the Cathohc Church system, on a less 
extensive scale. The tithe svstem in the transition and 



73 

in the course of time underwent a curtailment. If the 
Reformation had not taken place, or been introduced 
into this country, if the monarchs of Great Britain had 
remained obedient children of the Holy Father, how 
would the case stand at the present day ? Would Dr. 
Dovle have denounced the tithes as a devouring impost ; 
or put up his famous prayer that ** the hatred of the 
people to tithes may prove as lasting as their love of jus- 
tice ? '* Would he have preached up the doctrine of 
passive resistance, and, in the effervescence of his anti- 
tithe zeal, have given occasion to such shootings and 
hangings, and massacres, and outrages without number 
of the most revolting description ? Would he, to ac- 
complish his purpose, have assisted in loosening the 
bonds of society and making religion ancillary to disor- 
der and insubordination ? Would he have made w^ar 
upon his owm revenues, denounced the prop^erty of the 
Church, and set himself in opposition to the Christian 
world } We opine not. Otherwise he would have 
reaped the fatal consequences of his perverse singulari- 
ty. He would have brought the sovereign Pontiff about 
kis ears ; been classed with Wickliffe, John Huss, Je- 
rome of Prague, and the Vadois ; stripped of his episco- 
pal dignity, and ejected from the pale of the Church : he 
would have been deafened by the thunder and blasted by 
the lightning of the Vatican. It should be assumed 
therefore, that the real cause of the hostility manifested 
against tithes on the part of the Catholic Clergy was, 
that this great source of Church emolument was diverted 
into a new channel, and did not continue to flow as in 
the good old times for their own peculiar use and benefit. 
This cause however, has been kept out of sight ; and 
preposterously enough, the system itself, though blended 
with orthodoxy, has been attacked on its owti merits. 



CHAPTER XX. 

The dependent state of the Catholic Church in Ire- 
land is an exception to the general rule — the necessary 
result of untoward circumstances — and opposed to the 
wishes as well as to the discipline of the Universal 
Church. The anti- establishment gentlemen gm. in the 

G 



74 

teeth of all this and would fain change the discipline of 
the Church altogether, would dethrone the Pope, annul 
the general Councils, destroy the prescription of i 500 
years and in defiance of reason and of order turn the ex- 
ception into the general rule. The disciples of Socinus^ 
or the semi-demi Christians who would place the Church 
upon a new foundation, may ventm'e to proceed to these 
extremes ; but Cathohcs or persons calling themselves 
Catholics cannot do so without transgressing the rule& 
of Logic and overstepping the hmits of orthodoxv. But 
let us go into some paiticulars respecting the actual 
state of the Catholic Chm*ch in Ireland, immediately 
touching this matter. Is it totally dissevered from the 
State and totally dependent upon the alms of the people ? 
Such is not the case. The great Seminary that recruits 
the Priesthood is a govei*nment establishment. What 
was this but to lay the foundation for the alliance so 
much deprecated ? What was it but to connect with the 
State the fountain head of the hierarchy ? This treatv of 
amit\' and alliance was also entered into at a time when 
the penal code existed almost in full on the statute book 
and the Government was essentially Anti- Catholic. No 
doubt if the new s^^stem of political agitation happened 
to be fashionable at that period, if the Priesthood were 
volked to the chariot-wheels of domineering demagogues, 
this r eg ram donum would have been reprobated, would 
neither have been sohcited nor accepted ; and the hier- 
archy, who left to themselves received with thankfulness 
the bount)' of the legislature, would have been necessi- 
tated to keep aloof on the occasion and to abandon the 
interests of the Catholic Religion. But agitation was 
then only in embr^'o, the Bishops were at Hberty to act 
and the Royal College of St. Patrick^, Maynooth, was 
founded and established. To this royal endowment 
should be added the jail and other chaplaincies ; which 
are nothing more or less than legal or government ap- 
pointments. May we not also include the parochial 
schools every where established, or in course of esta- 
blishment, under the new board of education with the 
concurrence and co-operation of the Irish Catholic 
hierarchy. All this shews that the great work of Church 
ana ;^tate alliance, amid all the uproar against it, has 
made some progi'ess and is not likely to retrogi-ad^c 



But let us not confine ourselves to this portion of the 
British. Dominions. Catholic Church Establishments 
are in existence and in the way of formation in other 
parts of the Empire. Canada — that great colony — has 
always had an estabhshment of the kind, upheld now 
for a long period, by British power and British law. A 
Catholic Church Establishment has been formed for the 
Isle of France and other dependencies in that quarter ; 
and one is now in progress of formation for a section of 
Hindostan. What will our noisy separatists say to all 
this } Will they demand the suppression of the royal 
College of Maynooth ; the dismissal of the jail chaplains 
or that they must depend for their subsistence upon the 
offerings of the unfortunate prisoners ; the subversion of 
the Church Establishment in Canada ; the revocation 
of the pensions paid to the Bishop of the Isle of France 
and his subordinate Clergy and that a stop should be in- 
stantly put to the formation of the new estabhshment in 
India } Let them, if they wish to be consistent, demand 
aU this as necessary for the purity of the Christian Re- 
ligion and the preservation of civil liberty. But if they 
make no such demand, if they acquiesce in the progress 
making towards the completion of the very system they 
pretend to combat, what remains for them but to ac- 
knowledge their errors that they unwittingly undertook 
a task of an unseemly description — a task inconsistent 
with their own admissions, at variance with the religion 
they profess — ^a task that neither can or ought to be ac- 
comphshed. If they are willing to act with sincerity — 
a thing not very clear — they will make this acknow- 
ledgement and endeavour also, by way of reparation for 
mischief done, to disabuse the ignorant whom they have 
unhappily led astray by their reckless and prolonged sys- 
tem of sophistry and extravagance. 



CHAPTER XXL 

But is there any particular reason why the Catholie 
Church in Ireland should continue to be an exception 
to the general rule of Clnistendom, respecting Church 
Establishments ? Is she so circumstanced as to render 
necessary this departure from the general disciphne and 

g2 



76 

usage of tlie Churcli ; and even that the Irish Catholics 
should, as such, stand in this respect on a different foot- 
ing as to the ruling powers from the British Catholic 
subjects in other parts of the Empire ? When formerly 
the Government was purely Protestant, or say Anti- Ca- 
tholic, it was urged with some shew of reason that such 
ought to be the case ; that it would not be right to con- 
nect in any manner the Catholic Church with her ene- 
mies ; or that the Irish Catholic Church should enter 
into an alliance with the State. We have said, with 
some show of reason ; for even circumstanced as the 
State or the Government then was, it was still connect- 
ed with the CathoUc Church ; which, by the bye, it did 
not injure but protect — witness Canada; witness the 
College of Ma}Tiooth ; witness the protection and sup- 
port afforded to the French Emigrant Clergy. The 
spirit indeed latterly of the British Government, had 
been, for a considerable time, in opposition to the penal 
code, and could only be accounted sectarian as to the 
letter of the law. But how is the case now } It is not 
sectarian in any sense of the word ; either in the spirit or 
in the letter. The penal code is expunged from the sta- 
tute book, and the sun of the British constitution, hke 
the great luminary in the finnament shines equally upon 
all. The objectionable features therefore, on the part 
of the government have altogether disappeared. This 
is the present state of things ; this is the happy consum- 
mation that good men of all classes were for many years 
desirous of witnessing ; and which they expected would 
lead ultimately to unity of sentiment and of purpose, in 
all things conducive to the general good among the va- 
rious and diversified members of the community at large. 
What danger can be apprehended to the Irish Catholic 
Church, if a legal provision be secured for her, under 
the auspices of a Government of this description ? Will 
the Liturgy be altered or amended } Will the Sacra- 
ments cease to be administered ? Will Scripture and 
Tradition be set aside ? Will the king and his ministry 
and the Privy Council, and two houses of Parliament 
interfere in these matters ? Are our great political lead- 
ers — that is to say — the men who have endeavoured to 
raise the popular outcry against a State provision for the 
Clergy — apprehensive themselves of any danger, of any 



77 

interference of tMs kind ? But of what are they appre- 
hensive ? They fancy that pensioned Priests, or Priests 
rendered independent of the alms of their congregations 
would not attend to their duties ; that in such a case, 
the rites of rehgion would not be promptly administer- 
ed. This is to conjure up an imaginary evil, or to raise 
an objection upon an imaginary hypothesis. It is an 
objection also disproved by fact, disproved by the uni- 
versal discipline of the Church, both as to time and 
place. For it is under the circumstances objected to, 
that the rites of religion are every where administered, 
and have been, it may be said, always administered. 
This objection falls to the ground, because it would 
make against all Church Estabhshments. Those who 
consider it valid, must go so far as to say that the rea- 
son why a Priest visits a sick person is, because he ex- 
pects to get anointing money ! ! ! What a mercenary 
idea these gentlemen must have of the Irish Priests, or 
of Priests in general! — gentlemen too who, on other oc- 
casions, are so loud in their commendation. The fact 
is they let them down or they raise them up ; they hum- 
ble or exalt them, just according to circumstances, or as 
it suits their own purpose, or argument, or fancy. The 
true result of a Church Establishment would be, that 
the duties of the Priesthood would be better attended 
to. The districts, which are at present too large, and 
afford too much employment, would be narrowed, and 
the labour of the Priest w^ould be made commensurate 
with his abilities. In this case the sick calls, which at 
times are numerous and pressing, would be more rea- 
dily and more effectually answered. In regard to the 
general administration of the rites of religion, the old 
canonical mode w^ould be revived ; Stations, which give 
rise to many abuses, would be abolished; the people 
would approach the tribunal of penance and the holy 
communion in the temple of God ; and in the same holy 
place would be administered the Sacraments of Baptism 
and Matrimony. This new regulation would also cause 
an immense saving of time to the Clergyman ; which 
he might employ with great advantage, in visiting his 
parishioners, visiting his schools ; in improving himself 
by study and reflection, and consequently rendering 

g3 



78 

himself better qualified for the great work of instmcting 
and enlightening his congregation. 

But they object on the score of politics. Ci^il liber- 
ty — that most invaluable blessing — will be put in jeopar- 
dy, if any alliance takes place between the Irish Catho- 
lic Church and the British Legislature. Is Ireland or 
the British Empire peculiarly circumstanced in this way ? 
Does civil liberty in the first place rest upon an insecure 
foundation in these realms } And will the Catholic 
Priesthood of Ireland, in the enjo\Tiient of a State pro- 
vision, bethink themselves at once of joining in a con- 
spiracy to subvert Magna Charta, to abrogate the Re- 
form bill, to annul the habeas corpus act, to destroy the 
freedom of debate in Parliament, and to render the King 
of Great Britain a tyrant and a despot ? To effect all 
these mighty changes, they must bring into operation a 
more than super-human agency, and each of them must 
prove a second Hohenlohe. But this is all in the Moon. 
What may be expected to be the true result of the im- 
portant measure in question in respect to politics ? How 
may the Clergy be expected to demean themselves } 
They will not seek the subversion of civil liberty ; but 
they may be expected to recommend to the people to be 
peaceable and quiet, to obey the laws, to respect the 
constituted authorities, and to have an abhorrence for 
sedition and outrage. All this indeed may be appre- 
hended, and that the wild system of dangerous agita- 
tion and lawless conspiracy may be put in jeopardy. 
What is the real truth of the matter. The leaders of a 
certain party have found their account this time past in 
the co-operation of the Irish Catholic Priesthood. It 
was this clerical co-operation, or rather clerical subser- 
viency, that placed the multitude the more completely 
at their disposal, that enabled them to keep the whole 
kingdom in a state of commotion and alarm, to levy 
contributions, to send members into Parliament ; to he 
in short, of tremendous consequence as apolitical party. 
To uphold, if possible, and perpetuate all this, requires 
the stability and permanency of this same clerical co- 
operation ; which 

But only once withdraw 

And down comes ********** and a'. 

If this party are still determined to persevere in main- 



79 

taming the same formidable attitude, in pm'suing the 
same system of political tm'bulence, in keeping the mul- 
titude under their own particular guidance and control, 
and separate in a great measure from the influence and 
control of the law — a most unnatural and dangerous 
state of things — if all this be still their object, no doubt 
they will still endeavour to hold the Priesthood fast in 
their clutches, and move heaven and hell to thwart any 
measure that may deprive them of such pow^erful auxi- 
liaries, or leave them to their ov/n unaided resources. In 
this case it is not the good of religion they have in vievr, 
nor the interest of the Priesthood, nor the w^elfare of the 
community at large, but their cw^n dangerous conse- 
quence as a party ; to uphold w^hich they would fain 
hold in the most degrading vassalage both religion and 
its ministers. The hostility of this party to a Sta,te pro- 
vision for the Priesthood in question, furnishes an addi- 
tional argument in favour of that measure ; as, indeed, 
necessary to emancipate that body from their present 
unhappy state of thraldom and degradation. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

There is no reason, therefore, w^hy a Catholic Church 
Establishment should not be formed in Ireland ; nor 
why the Catholic hierarchy should not stand upon a 
friendly footing with the constituted authorities. But 
who, after aU, are the judges, or ought to be the judges 
of this matter } If the Clergy themselves consent, if the 
Bishops consent, if the Pope consent ; and then if this 
consent be in strict accordance with the discipline of the 
Church past and present ; and further, if the measure 
itself is louldly called for, as a remedy for numerous ex- 
isting evils in the Catholic Church of Ireland ; if thet'e 
be a concurrence of all these arguments and authorities 
in its favour, the question is decided; and no regard 
should be paid to the outcries occasioned by a few inter- 
ested persons — mere actors — w^ho cannot boast on their 
part of either reason or moderation, or consistency or 
sincerity. 

And now ye Catholic hierarchy of Ireland, ye Bish- 
ops and Priests, it is high time for you to hold up your 



80 

heads and to act a part suitable to the importance and 
dignity of your order. Ye say that *' ye have been ap- 
pointed of the Holy Ghost to rule the Church of God." 
Have ye these years past acquitted yourselves of this in- 
dispensable obligation ? Have ye ruled the people com- 
mitted to your charge according to the maxims of the 
Gospel, and the Canons of the Church } Have ye ruled 
the people ; or have ye suffered yourselves to be ruled 
by them ? Have ye in the discharge of your duties, ex- 
hibited as ye were bound to do, firamess, inflexibility, 
detennination and perseverance } Or have ye not, on 
the conti'ary, been '' tossed about to and fi'o by every 
wind of popidar doctrine }" Tliis latter alternative has 
taken place. Your career has been marked by unstea- 
diness, time-serving and tergiversation. Popular cla- 
mour has scared you from the paths of duty, and influ- 
enced even your synodical decisions. Ye have made 
religion turn upon popular feeling or rather upon the 
feeling of faction ; instead of endeavom*ing to make po- 
pular feehng square with rehgion. Ye have exhibited 
even a want of uniformity among yourselves ; for the 
Clergy of Ulster have preseiwed religion in a great mea- 
sure free from that contagion of part}' pohtics, by which 
it has been infected in most other parts of the kingdom. 
Did this arise from pecuharity of circumstances, or from 
a diversity of opinion ? Individual Clergy-men also in 
the various other dioceses imitated the example of their 
brethren in Ulster, in opposition to that of their dioce- 
sans ; who, either with the approbation or the conni- 
vance of their Bishops, respectively swamped religion 
in an ocean of politics, and assisted in forming or fit- 
ting the unhappy multitude for the perpetration of ever}^ 
species of outrage and crime, Ye suffered political or 
factious harangues to be made from your altars at the 
celebration of Divine Worship, and surrendered your 
Churches to be used as political club-houses ; thus not 
only transgressing in general against the sanctity of the 
occasion, and the sanctit\" of the temple, but also violat- 
ing an express ordinance of the Council of Trent respect- 
ing such matters ; and when at the eleventh hour,"^ re- 
primanded perhaps by higher authority, ye issued, in 



* See Appendix, 3. 



81 

some sort, a proliibition, pursuant to this same ordi- 
nance, against the prevaiKng* abuses; why was this pro- 
hibition confined to the Archdiocess of Dubhn, and to 
some few other particular districts of the kingdom ? 
Why was it not published and enforced in the diocess of 
Cork ? Why was it not enforced in all quarters, and 
from the beginning ? Why was the authority of the 
Council of Trent so long disregarded ? Why were its 
ordinances set aside ; nor any account made of the solid 
reasons upon which these ordinances are founded ? And 
at length, when the Council has been brought forward, 
why is its authority not respected equally, and obeyed 
equally in every particular diocess ? Is this the due 
mode of administering the affairs of religion, and ruling 
the Church of God ? What sort of rule is that which is 
made up of discrepance, contradiction, caprice and un- 
certainty ? What sort of Church rule must exist when 
Churchmen are at variance with themselves and with 
one another ; are acting not in unison as members of a 
great moral body diffused through the world, but as de- 
tached individuals, each determining for himself accord- 
ing to his own private views and inclinations ; while 
the multitude, amid all their fury and extravagance, 
are astounded and scandalized at the strange, unac- 
countable, irreligious conduct of their spiritual guides : 

" Who play such antick tricks as make the Angels weep." 

And while, finally, the reflecting portion of the Catho- 
lic community — enemies to faction and lovers of peace, 
blush at once for their religion and its ministers ? Has 
not religion in your hands become a mere party word, 
and your ministiy, to w^hich so much importance is at- 
tached, been converted or dwindled into a mere party 
concern ? Have not ye, whose order was instituted for 
the benefit of all, identified yourselves with a fraction of 
your congregations ? — And thus very absurdly placed 
yourselves in opposition to the rest ; and in open hos- 
tility with those who do not appertain to your fold ; but 
whom it is your duty to win over if possible, by mild- 
ness, condescension and charity. Is this conduct on 
your part agreeable to that of the Apostle, who was 
" all to all in order to gain all ?" Ye have identified 
yourselves as Ministers of the Gospel with a political 



82 

sect, entered into their views, partaken of their animo- 
sities, countenanced their violences, and made war in 
conjunction with them, on the rest of the community. 
YxHiat other eiFect could all this produce but to alienate 
a portion of your own flock, and to confirm others in the 
l^ad opinion they had been tauo^ht to entertain of your 
religion and of yom'selves ? What is this but to act in 
direct contradiction to your institute ? For yom* order 
has not been founded for the service of a sect, but for 
the benefit of the whole Christian community. It is 
high time for you to put an end to this unseemly, this 
discreditable, this pernicious, this unhallowed state of 
things. 

It is high time for you to raise yourselves from the 
depths into which ye have unhappily fallen, and to re- 
sume your proper station in the commonwealth of reli- 
gion. Emancipate yourselves from the trammels of 
party, and recover your lost dignity and independence. 
Let your temples be once more the houses of prayer, and 
vourselves the true ministers of the Gospel. Judge for 
vourselves, decide for yourselves, in all things pertain- 
ing to the interest and welfare of religion. Seize the 
first opportunity of rescuing your Church from its pre- 
sent eleemosynary, humihating, scandalous, inadequate 
mode of subsistence ; and of procuring for it an ho- 
nourable establishment — an establishment that will spee- 
dilv remove its deformities, give it a new and improved 
appearance, render its discipline conformable to the ec- 
clesiastical canons, and liken it, as is fitting, to the 
other Catholic Churches throughout Christendom. 

Gvens, September mth, 1834. 



APPENDIX. 



X..^'fhe Messrs. Tobin — an English Compan)' — who ate 
now forming an establishment for the manufacture of Gun- 
powder, and are giving employment to a considerable number 
of tradesmen and labourers at Ballincollig, have embarked in 
the business under the full assurance that the place will be re- 
tained as a permanent Military Station. This assurance re- 
moves the apprehension they would otherwise entertain from 
the general state of the country ; and which but for the local cir- 
cumstances of BallincoUig, would deter them from transferring 
any portion of their capital to this side of the water. 



2.— FORM OF LICENSE. 

No. DIE mensis A. D, 18 

JUSTIS causis nos ad id moventibiis, dispensamus supra 
trina Bannorum promulgatione cum 

Parochis in Dioecesi 

CoRCAGiEXsi : dumtnodo constet nullum aliud intercedere im- 
pedimentum, de quo caute vigilet Celebrans. 
Datum die & anno supra notatis 



The system of Church finance is not perfectly uniform 
throughout Ireland. But the Yariation is too trivial to be taken 
into account. 



Z.^^Extr act from the Minutes of the Proceedings of the Roman 
Catholic Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland, assembled at the 
Parochial House, Marlborough Street, Dublin, on the 2Sth of 
J(muary, 1834, the Most Rev. Doctor Murray, Presiding, 



Resolved— That we would view with the greatest alarm, 
and would visit with the severest chastisement that we could 
inflict, all or any interference of any Clergyman or Clergymen 
subject to us, who, forgetful of his or their duty, unmindful of 
the obedience due to the Decree of the Sacred Congregation, 
bearing date the IQth of October, 1829, and regardless of the 
oftentimes expressed sentiments of the Irish Prelates, Clergy, 
^nd People, would seek to employ the influence of our own, or 
any other Secular Goverment, in the appointment of Persons 
to Vacant Sees in Ireland. 

Resolved — That our Chapels are not to be used in future 
for the purpose of holding therein any public meeting, except 
in cases connected with Charity or Religion, and that we do 
hereby pledge ourselves to carry this Resolution into efi'ect, in 
our respective Dioceses. 

Resolved — That whilst we do not intend to interfere with 
the civil rights of those entrusted to our care, yet, as Guardians 
of Religion, justly apprehending that its general interests, as 
well as the honor of the Piiesthood, would be compromised by 
a deviation from the line of conduct which we marked out for 
ourselves, and impressed upon the minds of our Clergy, in our 
Pastoral Address of the year 1830 ; we do hereby pledge our- 
selves, on our return to our respective Dioceses, to remind our 
Clergy of the instructions we then addressed to them, and to 
recommend to them most earnestly, to avoid in future any al- 
lusions at their Altars to Political subjects, and carefully to re- 
frain from connecting themselves with Political Clubs — acting 
as Chairmen and Secretaries at Political meetings, or moving 
or seconding Resolutions on such occasions ; in order that we 
exhibit ourselves in all things in the charactei of our sacred 
calling, as Ministers of Christ, and dispensers of the mysteries 

of God. 

t D. MURRAY, Archbishop. 



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